Pope to have presidential escort for Israel trip

(February 16, 2009) Israel's president will escort Pope Benedict XVI around the Holy Land when he visits in May, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday. Olmert spoke of the pilgrimage at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday. "In May of this year, Israel will receive a special visitor, Pope Benedict XVI," Olmert said, without giving an exact date. "President Shimon Peres will escort him as he visits various sites around the country." 65-old Peres is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been active in Mideast peace efforts for decades. Pope Benedict has tried to reduce tensions between the Vatican and Israel that followed his recent reinstatement of excommunicated bishop, Richard Williamson, who questioned the extent of the Holocaust. At a meeting with Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations in the Vatican last Thursday the Pontiff condemned Bishop Williamson's remarks and spoke out against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. The Pope also said he was preparing for his upcoming visit to the Holy Land. The Holy Father’s trip was planned before the Williamson affair surfaced. There has been only one other official visit by a pope to the Jewish state, by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The Vatican and Israel established diplomatic relations in the early 1990s but relations have been often been tense.