More than 70,000 Christians are expected to attend a special Mass near the Mount of Beatitudes during the pope's visit to the Holy Land

January 29, 2000
Web posted at: 9:37 p.m. EST (0237 GMT)

In this story: Christians a minority presence Religious rivalry in Nazareth RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Correspondent Jerrold Kessel

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Vatican representatives and Israeli officials are working intensely to prepare for Pope John Paul II's pilgrimage to the Holy Land in two months, despite the difficulties that seem to dog their every step.

The quiet hillside near the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus is said to have given his Sermon on the Mount, will be transformed into a giant, open-air amphitheater for a special Mass attended by 70,000 young Christians.

"The trouble is that there will be artificial numbers," said Father Jerome Murphy O'Connor of the Ecole Biblique. "There aren't 70,000 young Christians in the Holy Land.

"They will come from abroad and that may, unfortunately, give an inflated idea of what the actual situation of the church is here."

Christians a minority presence

Palestinian Christians are a dwindling factor in the Holy Land's religious mix. Christianity's minority status, as distinct from what the pope finds on most of his tours, is seen as a challenge.

Senior officials, including the Vatican spokesmen, are inspecting all the locations the pope will visit during his strenuous itinerary from March 20 to 26, including Palestinian Bethlehem.

Emil Jarjoui, of the Palestinian Authority, says the pope's presence "is a sort of backing to our presence as Palestinians, to all the Palestinians of the world, that they have now a country and that they can come back to it."

Religious rivalry in Nazareth

Problems still loom. For example, in Nazareth, outside the Basilica of the Annunciation, John Paul II will walk into a still unresolved feud between Christians and Muslims.

The latter won permission from the Israeli government to build a mosque nearby, but their temporary, tented mosque remains on the spot where the pope is due to walk.

But for many pilgrims, beyond the politics and questions of religious rivalry and tolerance, John Paul II's visit will be a seminal time.

For the pope and for Christianity, said Father Patrick Noonan, of the Franciscan Order, this will be "a moment to look at itself, its own conscience and a moment to look at its place in the world today."

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