Posted on 01/06/2014 6:02:57 AM PST by NYer
.- Pope Francis has announced that he will make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land this coming May to mark a key moment in Catholic and Orthodox Christian relations.
“In this atmosphere of joy, typical of this Christmas time, I wish to announce that from 24 to 26 (of) next May, God willing, I will carry out a pilgrimage in the Holy Land,” he said after the Jan. 5 Sunday Angelus to the crowds filling St. Peter’s Square.
Pope Francis will meet with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, during his May pilgrimage. Along with representatives of “all the Christian churches of Jerusalem,” the two leaders will celebrate an ecumenical meeting at the site of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians revere as the place of Jesus’ burial prior to the Resurrection.
The Pope explained that the “principal goal” of the trip is “to commemorate the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athenagoras I, that occurred precisely on January 5, as today, 50 years ago.”
In January of 1964, Pope Paul VI traveled to the Holy Land. He met with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on the Mount of Olives on January 5.
This historic meeting led to an improved relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, including a momentous joint declaration issued in 1965. In that declaration both leaders expressed their desire “to overcome their differences in order to be again ‘one’ as the Lord Jesus asked of his Father for them.”
The Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of His Holiness Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the centuries-long excommunications levied by the leaders of both Churches against each other in 1054. The excommunications helped finalize the schism between the major Churches of Eastern and Western Christianity.
In addition to Jerusalem, the Pope will also travel to Bethlehem and Amman, Jordan.
Patriarch Bartholomew I came to Rome for Pope Francis’s installation Mass in March 2013. During that visit, he asked the Pope to visit the Holy Land.
Pope Francis concluded his announcement with a request for spiritual support.
“Right now, I ask you to pray for this pilgrimage, which will be a pilgrimage of prayer,” he said.
Ping!
Here’s hoping there is a Holy Land in May.
This trip makes me nervous because of how Francis has made nice-nice with some very suspect Muslims, including leaders of infiltrators who have been wreaking havoc in Italy. He also visited Muslims on Easter. Here’s hoping he doesn’t back up the Muzzie’s phony claim to the Temple Mount, or complain about Israel’s “occupation”.
From the supposed third secret of Fatima:
And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.
There will always be a Holy Land.
I will pray for a successful visit.
“From the supposed third secret of Fatima:
And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.”
Um............You better check the source again.
That suposed prophecy was REALLY about the attempt on the life of Blessed, soon to be declared Saint John Paul II.
With CONFIDENCE, the Holy Land WILL STILL BE AROUND.
Yet it was said that even St. Francis went and preached to the Muslims.
Says who? I don't recall scores of clergy dying, and I don't recall Pope JP II crying over corpses at that time. He was in Rome so maybe that counts as a city "half in ruins" but he wasn't struggling with halting painful steps, he was in a motorcade passing through a jubilant crowd. I never bought that explanation (assuming the published prophecy was real).
In truth, if the Virgin Mary were to come to earth and reveal three important things, the Pope being injured but living for another 20 years seems a small thing for her to comment on, especially in such apocalyptic terms.
You should go there. EVERY Christian should see it.
I went there with a Protestant friend in 2011. Fabulous.
I was told a number of years back during a rosary cenacle gathering when I first heard about that prophecy and was told that it was about Blessed John Paul II and the attempt on his life.
So is all the carnage supposed to be symbolizing the death of spirituality amongst the laity and even the clergy? If you view it in that context then perhaps it makes some sense but then wouldn't that mean the Pope's wounds in the prophecy are also spiritual in nature? Why would you interpret his wounds as physical and all the others as purely spiritual? To me it makes no sense.
Same here, I have hard time too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.