Vatican Radio - Cardinal Koch on ecumenical, interfaith hopes for Holy Land trip
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is due to depart on Saturday for a three day visit to the Holy Land during which he will visit Jordan, Israel and the State of Palestine. At the heart of the brief but action-packed programme is an encounter in Jerusalem with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the Orthodox world, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagorus. That meeting, in January 1964, marked a vital first step towards reconciliation of Western and Eastern Christianity which had been divided for over a thousand years.
