Up to 50,000 people are expected at a special mass in Amman as Quentin Sommerville reports
Pope Francis has arrived in Jordan at the start of a three-day visit to the Middle East which will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
He is due to be welcomed by King Abdullah II. He will celebrate Mass in a stadium in Amman before later meeting Syrian refugees.
The official purpose of the visit is to improve ties with the Orthodox Church.
But correspondents say many will expect Pope Francis to use his influence to try to ease tensions in the region.
The Pope was met at the airport by Prince Ghazi, an adviser to King Abdullah for religious and cultural affairs, and by two children in traditional Jordanian dress who handed him flowers.
He told journalists that the trip would be "challenging" but rewarding, AP reports.
"My heart beats and is looking to love," he said.
By BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, travelling with Pope Francis
Pope Francis comes across as an approachable, amiable man. Not long after takeoff he came to greet the 50 or so journalists travelling with him. They're mostly reporters who follow the Pope full-time. One woman said that Pope Benedict, Francis's predecessor, never came back to talk to journalists. She asked him to pose for a selfie, which he did with a smile.
He told me he had been in Jerusalem only once before, in 1973 at the time of the Yom Kippur war. The Pope insists his trip is about religion, officially marking the fiftieth anniversary of a visit by Pope Paul VI 50 years ago. But he's heading for Jerusalem, where everything is political. It will take diplomatic skill to avoid controversy.
Palestinians hope he will have something to say about their desire for independence. In Bethlehem, which is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinians say they are threatened by the encroachment of Jewish settlements. The Israeli government will hope he stays as neutral as possible - a position which would disappoint Palestinian Christians.
The Pope will be accompanied by a rabbi and an imam - friends from his native Argentina - and hopes to improve relations between Christians, Muslims and Jews in the Holy Land.
His journey comes only a few weeks after the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed.
Israel has issued restraining orders against several Jewish right-wing activists this week over concerns that they could try to disrupt the visit.
Police said offensive "anti-Christian graffiti" was discovered on the wall of a church in the southern city of Beersheba on Friday.
The Pope's journey marks the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and the head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Athenagoras.
The meeting ended 900 years of separation and enduring antagonism between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity.
On Sunday, Pope Francis will travel to Bethlehem in the West Bank and preside over Mass in Manger Square, near the site where Jesus is believed to have been born.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment