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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The patriarch of the Melkite Catholic Church, who lives in Syria, and the Latin-rite patriarch of Jerusalem invited members of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible to visit them and discover how living in the land of the Bible can make its words come alive. Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, and Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem addressed the synod Oct. 10, extending invitations but also talking about some of the challenges Christians in the Holy Land are facing. Patriarch Laham told the synod: "The word of God unites us; it reinforces...

Russia seeks to restore its prestige in the Holy Land JERUSALEM (AFP) — Eager to revive its prestige in the Holy Land, Russia is pressing a claim to ownership of an historic Jerusalem building formerly owned by a tsarist prince and which once housed aristocratic pilgrims. The 19th century Sergei Building is in the centre of Jerusalem and at the heart of complex negotiations in which even British royal consort Prince Philip has been mentioned as a potential, though unlikely, heir. The Russian state had initially hoped to take possession in June of the impressive property that once belonged to...

An ancient monastery adjacent to where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus ate the Last Supper, has turned into a legal battleground for Catholics and Jews. Last week the High Court of Justice issued a temporary restraining order halting construction work by a Jewish organization in a Franciscan monastery on Jerusalem's Mount Zion adjacent to the Cenaculum, the Latin term for the room where the Last Supper was held. The court also issued an order preventing the Jewish organization - the Institute for the Study of the Family and Family Laws in Israel - from moving people in to live in...

Here on the plains of the Tigris River lies the shrine of Ezra, the Jewish prophet, who returned to Jerusalem at the end of the Babylonian exile. According to biblical scholars, Ezra died years later back in the Mesopotamia at age 120 in what is now called Uzair. Locals believe Ezra passed away while roaming through the area with his donkey. His shrine still exists in this predominantly Shiite district of Amarah province filled with supporters of young cleric Muqtada's Sadr late father, a grand ayatollah assassinated in 1999. Bashir Zaalan is the custodian of Ezra's shrine. Zaalan inherited the...

A seal impression belonging to a minister of the Biblical King Zedekiah which dates back 2,600 years has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said on Thursday. The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago, said Prof. Eilat Mazar who is leading the dig at the...

Political Messiah in the Holy LandObama in the Mideast. An NRO Q&A Caroline B. Glick is the deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and the senior fellow for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy. Her book, Shackled Warrior, Israel and the Global Jihad was released earlier this year. She took questions from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez on Friday about Barack Obama’s visit to the Mideast. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Am I wrong in saying that Barack Obama did not impress Israel?Caroline Glick: Israelis are very caught up with our local news right now. Foremost on...

A note of prayer that Barack Obama penned and slipped into the cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem was pilfered from the holy site and published in an Israeli newspaper - exposing to the world a personal plea for God to help him "guard against pride and despair."

An Israeli newspaper is under fire after publishing a private prayer which Barack Obama left at Judaism's holiest site. The row broke out as the U.S. Presidential candidate visited France as part of his whistlestop tour. Obama had tucked his prayer into the cracks of the Western Wall early yesterday morning. 'Lord - Protect my family and me,' read the note, published in the newspaper Maariv today. 'Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.' Many visitors...

JERUSALEM - A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday. "Lord—Protect my family and me," reads the note published in the Maariv daily. "Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will." The paper's decision to make the note public drew fire. The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said...

....In the private note, handwritten on the headed letter paper of the hotel where he was staying, the presidential hopeful asks God to: "Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just" and "protect my family". Predictably, the publication has ignited an unholy row. The wailing or western wall, as it is also known, is the holiest place Jews can visit, because it is the remains of the foundations of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed by Romans two thousand years ago.

We know who you are and who your friends are. Barack Obama, why don't you just go home? Barack, your visit here is just a waste of time; you're not wanted or needed here. We'll do just fine without you and you'll probably do better with out us, too. Don't come around here making as if you're looking out for the good of Israel. We know who you are and who your friends are. Zigzagging back and forth about dividing or un-dividing Jerusalem won't clear your history. I'm not talking about your middle name. Any good Christian might have the...

Alert…Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has crossed into the West Bank on his way to meet with leaders of the Palestinian National Authority in Ramallah. This trip comes after several other meetings, with Defense Minister Ehud Barack and Likud Party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu this morning and a visit to the Holocaust Memorial and Museum Yad Vashem. ...snip... "Senator can you assure Israel that there will be no second Holocaust despite Iran's threat to wipe us off the map?" he asked. Obama demurred, saying that it wasn't appropriate to answer the question there. "This is Yad Vashem!" the journalist responded. Obama said...

As they say: developing picture available on Drudge

In Israel, a resurgence in the number of Jews who believe in Jesus is getting a lot of attention. Many leaders say it's the strongest growth since the time of Jesus and that the Messianic movement could be on the brink of a great revival. "This is the first time where we've seen Israeli society in general being so open to consider who Yeshua is," said Messianic leader Asher Intrater. "This is a real miracle, and there's beginning to be grace and favor with us in the land." Although Jesus and the early disciples were Jewish, for nearly 2,000 years...

The Jerusalem gay pride parade, which has repeatedly riled religious city residents, will take place in the city on Thursday under tight security, with its most vocal opponents, the haredi community, choosing to avoid public protests in an effort to minimize publicity of the event. Last year's Jerusalem Gay Pride parade. [file] Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski [file] The annual march, which is organized by Jerusalem's gay and lesbian center, the Open House, was approved by the High Court of Justice this week over the opposition of city hall. The court has repeatedly ruled in favor of the parade, despite the vehement...

Israeli on Arab TV: J'lem Was Ours When Moslems Worshipped Idols ...Israeli on Arab TV: J'lem Was Ours When Moslems Worshipped Idols ... Jerusalem is our city forever and is not an issue for you, for Al Jazeera or for anyone ...Dr. Kedar: "Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran even once. You can't rewrite the Koran on air on Al Jazeera."... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126403

JERUSALEM, JUNE 8, 2008 (Zenit.org).- For a Hebrew-speaking Catholic living in Israel, fostering Jewish-Catholic relations isn't simply a part of the faith, it's a way of life, according to an Israeli priest. Jesuit Father David Mark Neuhaus, who comes from a Jewish family, is the secretary-general of the Hebrew-speaking Catholic Vicariate in Israel and serves as the priest in charge of the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community in Haifa. In this interview with ZENIT, Father Neuhaus comments on the history, mission and challenges facing the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community in Israel. Q: You say on your Web site that being a Hebrew-speaking Catholic...

JERUSALEM – Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong to the Muslims and any Israeli action that "offends" the Mount will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims, declared the chief of staff for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "Jerusalem is Muslim. The blessed Al Aqsa mosque and Harem Al Sharif (Temple Mount) is 100 percent Muslim. The Israelis are playing with fire when they threaten Al Aqsa with digging that is taking place," said Abbas' chief of staff Rafiq Al Husseini. The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site. Husseini was referring to Israeli plans to construct a new bridge from the...

The cemetery at Neve Allon is small, only two rows of graves, so it was easy to find Danny’s. His was one of two graves on which the Israel Defense Force (IDF) emblem had been carved. Since it was the day before Israel’s Memorial Day, the IDF had placed a small bouquet of purple flowers and a memoriam candle on the grave, and had tied a black ribbon to the flagstaff of the small Israeli flag that stood at the foot of the grave. The stone read that Daniel, the son of Harvey and Sandra, was an immigrant from the...

Why should Christians care about Israel? Amid the National Post's extensive coverage of Israel's 60th anniversary, it is a question worth asking. In particular, it was a question I had to think seriously about a few years ago when I was invited to join the board of directors of the Canada-Israel Committee, the branch of organized Jewry in Canada that defends the cause of Israel, works to enhance Canada-Israel relations and promotes Israel in Canadian public opinion. Before accepting, I wanted be sure that there were theological reasons for joining. I did accept, for three reasons which I think answer...

Israeli history has ruled that none lasted long when they came close to giving up vital security assets. Shimon Peres survived for a year in 1996 after his move to continue the concessions made under the Oslo Framework Accords; Ehud Barak was toppled in 2000 as head of government and defense minister when he shrank from fighting the Palestinian uprising and sought an accommodation with Yasser Arafat instead. Olmert is said to be on the point of giving up parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians and, according to a message carried by Turkish go-betweens to the Syrian ruler, offering to...

Conversion to Islam on road to Damascus spells the end for Aramaic, the native language of Jesus ELIAS Khoury can still remember the days when old people in the mountain village of Malula spoke only Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Back then the village, linked to the capital Damascus, only by a long and bumpy bus ride, was almost entirely Christian, a vestige of an older, more diverse Middle East that existed before the arrival of Islam. Now Khoury, 65, grey-haired and bedridden, admits ruefully that he has largely forgotten the language he spoke with his own mother. "It's disappearing,"...

Most American Christians – regardless of their denomination and background – say they feel a "moral and biblical obligation" to support the State of Israel, according to a new survey conducted by a D.C.-based evangelical organization. Though figures released this week by the Joshua Fund differed among Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals and non-Evangelicals, the new figures confirmed that American Christians as a whole believed that a “biblical obligation� exists behind their support for the State of Israel. According to the survey, evangelical Christians were the most supportive of Israeli causes; nearly 90 percent said they felt a “moral and biblical obligation�...

Bethany Was Near Jerusalem A homily on the occasion of the Memorial of William F. Buckley Jr. By Rev. George W. Rutler Editor's Note: The following homily was preached on the occasion of the Memorial Mass for Repose of the Soul of William F. Buckley Jr. on April 4, 2008, at St. Patrick's Cathedral. “Now Bethany was near Jerusalem. . . . ” John 11:18 In the village of Bethany was the house of Mary and her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus. There Jesus wept when Lazarus died, and then he called into the tomb and Lazarus came forth...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state. "America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,"...

Psalms and incense filled the air of the Holy City of Jerusalem on what is known as Good Friday, as thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world prayed along the traditional route Jesus took to his crucifixion. The faithful, several of them bearing large wooden crosses, walked in procession along the cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem's Old City, following the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Suffering, where Jesus is said to have carried the cross on which he was later crucified by the Romans. "This is where Jesus suffered, and we are following in his footsteps," said Flora Seguirante, a...

Thousands of Christians from all over the world crowded the stone alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City to mark Good Friday, retracing the route Jesus took to his crucifixion. Nigerian Christian pilgrims, one waving an Israeli flag, attend a mass prayer at Hulda steps in Jerusalem's Old City, Tuesday. Photo: AP Some pilgrims carried large wooden crosses as they walked down the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Sorrows, stopping at 14 stations that commemorate events that befell Jesus as he was led to his death. Many pilgrims prayed in the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally the site of Jesus'...

Here is the text of an e-mail I received today from a family member in Israel: "Urgent Prayer request: I just talked with Pastor XXXX from Ariel, he was at the hospital because his son XXXX opened a package that was left at their door step and it exploded. He is in critical condition and has wounds to his head, neck, chest and legs. Pray for XXXX and XXXX who are the parents." I X'd out all names to protect the identity of the families, and it's reasonable to expect that this was a targeted attack. God will know who...

On the evening of May 22 in Haifa, Israel, more than 4,500 people are expected to gather on "God's Holy Mountain," Mt. Carmel, for a dedication ceremony of the new Shrine of the Bab, a succession of 19 terraced gardens that evoke the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Baha'i World Center, a complex of classically designed shrines and administrative buildings which will serve as the headquarters for an emerging world religion.The dedication of the new complex signals Baha'i's growing prominence in the world, and its leadership in the evolution of a new one-world religion — which it claims...

An ancient seal bearing an archaic Hebrew inscription dating back to the 8th century BCE has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday. The seal excavated in the City of David bears the name of a public official from the 8th century BCE. Photo: Shalem Center / Carla Amit The find reveals that by 2,700 years ago, clerks and merchants had already begun to add their names to the seals instead of the symbols that were used in earlier centuries. The state-run archeological body said the seal, which was discovered...

Showcasing the vulnerability of Gaza’s tiny Christian community, a dozen or more gunmen, some of them masked, blew up the library of the YMCA in Gaza City last week, while holding the YMCA’s security guards at gunpoint. The Gaza YMCA, which welcomes both Christian and Muslim youngsters, was someplace where men and women were free to interact together, offending many radical Islamists.

(IsraelNN.com) US President George W. Bush said a nuclear Iran would mean World War III. Israeli newscasts featured Gog & Magog maps of the likely alignment of nations in that potential conflict. Channel 2 and Channel 10 TV showed the world map, sketching the basic alignment of the two opposing axes in a coming world war, in a manner evoking associations of the Gog and Magog prophecy for many viewers. The prophecy of Gog and Magog refers to a great world war centered on the Holy Land and Jerusalem and first appears in the book of Yechezkel (Ezekiel). On one...

An earthquake shook Israel at 12:37 PM Friday. The only damage reported in Israel was on the Temple Mount and near Shechem (Nablus). The earthquake measured 5.3 on the Richter scale; its epicenter was located in northeastern Lebanon. Earlier last week an earthquake measuring 4.1 was felt in northern Israel, also originating from Lebanon, near its northern city of Tyre. A large hole opened up on the Temple Mount during Friday's earthquake (click here for pictures), which was soon covered by officials from the Wakf Islamic Authority that administers the mosques built atop Judaism’s holiest site. The only other reported...

Biblical hero Joseph 'was really a Muslim' Palestinians make astonishing claim, deny they'll help restore burned tomb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Building at Joseph's Tomb site after Palestinian Authority took control in 2000 . In the wake of an attempt by Palestinians to burn down Joseph's Tomb – Judaism's third holiest site – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction issued a statement denying it will help restore the shrine, referring to both the shrine and the biblical patriarch as "Muslim." "Pay no attention to the rumors that we will work with Israel to restore the burial site of the holy Muslim Joseph,"...

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri Vatican City, Feb 15, 2008 / 11:25 am (CNA).- The head of the Congregation that oversees the Church in the Holy Land, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, has appealed to the Catholic Church to provide assistance to the Christians there, so that “the future may be welcomed with hope.”The summons to support Christians in the Holy Land went out in the form of a letter to Catholic bishops all over the world, and to their respective Churches. Cardinal Sandri’s appeal was made on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI, and asked for continued spiritual and material support for the...

A group of scholars posted a statement rejecting the identification of the Talpiot tomb as belonging to Jesus, a week after a conference in Jerusalem revisited evidence on claims presented in the controversial film "Lost Tomb of Jesus." In a statement posted Monday on the Duke University Religion Department's blog site, key figures in the discovery of the 1980 Talpoit tomb and other experts who attended the conference agreed that most scholars in attendance rejected the claims that the tomb belonged to the author of Christianity, despite the consensus being represented by the media as otherwise. "We wish to protest...

(IsraelNN.com) US President George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union address Monday evening, praising the 2005 election of Mahmoud Abbas and once again calling for a Palestinian state. Bush lauded the election of Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas in 2005 as PA chairman as proof of a rejection of terrorism among PA Arabs. “We are also standing against the forces of extremism in the Holy Land, where we have new cause for hope. Palestinians have elected a president who recognizes that confronting terror is essential to achieving a state where his people can live in dignity and at peace...

Jesus 'Tomb' Controversy Reopened Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 By TIM MCGIRK/JERUSALEMThe Talpiot tomb. Discovery / EPA When the Discovery Channel aired a TV documentary last year raising the possibility that archeologists had found the family tomb of Jesus Christ in the hills behind Jerusalem, it caused a huge backlash among Christians. The claim, after all, challenged one of the cornerstones of Christian faith — that Jesus, after his crucifixion, rose bodily to heaven in his physical form. The Lost Tomb of Jesus, made by Hollywood director James Cameron and Canadian investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici, was shown only once on Discovery....

On his final day in Israel, President Bush toured Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres joined the president. (Transcript)From there the president traveled to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, following in the footsteps of Christ as he visited the House of St. Peter and the Church of the Beatitudes. Ed Gillespie: The President had fun on the tour, laughing with the nuns so often I joked with Chief of Staff Josh Bolten I was worried someone’s knuckles were going to get smacked with a ruler! There was a farewell...

SEA OF GALILEE, Israel -- Immersed for two days in the intense and arcane world of Mideast peacemaking, President Bush looked relieved Friday to see something of the landscape that all the fighting is about. Obviously moved, he even giggled, too. Bush retraced the steps of Jesus and his disciples in the ancient town of Capernaum and gazed out on the nearby Sea of Galilee, where the Bible says Jesus walked on water and calmed a sudden storm by commanding the wind and waves to cease. The waters were crystal blue and calm when Bush visited, leaning in to listen...

Terror Financing: After the Holy Land Foundation case ended in a mistrial, Muslim groups cheered and scolded the U.S. for a witch hunt. But defendants got some help from the inside.t turns out that a Hamas-sympathizing juror sabotaged the biggest terror-funding case in U.S. history by bullying jurors who favored convictions. According to interviews conducted since the October mistrial, juror William Neal intimidated colleagues into voting for acquittals of Holy Land leaders accused of funneling millions to Hamas suicide bombers and their families. Neal, a Dallas graphic artist who voted not guilty across the board, launched into obscenity-laced tirades against...

A Hamas-sympathizing juror may have misled U.S. prosecutors about his neutrality during jury selection in the nation's largest terror-financing trial, investigators familiar with the case say. The juror's "browbeating" of fellow jurors during deliberations in the Holy Land Foundation trial led to a mistrial, they say. The Dallas-based charity and its leaders are accused of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas suicide bombers and their families....prosecutors, who are preparing to retry the case, considered investigating the juror for perjury after hearing complaints from other jurors about his pro-Hamas, anti-Israeli bias and obscenity-laced bullying in the jury room. "One guy...

The Arab immigrants that started to call themselves (in the 1960's as) "palestinians" The Arabs in the Holy Land - Natives or Aliens? Unknown to most of the world population, the origin of the "Palestinian" Arabs' claim to the Holy Land spans ...http://www.ldolphin.org/palestinians.html   The True Identity of the So-called Palestinians.The current myth is that these Arabs were long established in “Palestine”, until the Jews came and “displaced” them. The fact is, that recent Arab immigration into the Land of Israel displaced the Jews. That the massive increase in Arab population was very recent is attested by the ruling of...

  A Byrd's eye look at the historic 'Israeli - Arab conflict' towards Annapolis 2007    Around 2,000 years ago, the Romans that have conquered Israel, the Jewish people, the Jewish land, (after killing Jesus) destroy Jews' second temple, massacre hundreds of thousands after a rebellion against Rome's oppression and prohibition on practicing Judaism and mass torture [an armed rebellion which was disapproved by the rabbis & any religious leaders], and expell majority of Jews out of the land [as was expected throught the Jewish prophets, because God expects from his people - the Jews much more than from other...

    But we were told that the Arabs hate us because of supposedly being biased against Arab "Palestinians"...Nov/2007 REMEMBER? Wild Arabist writers/"activists" have been flooding us for years with brainwashing nonsense as if the Arab Muslim world is "enraged" mainly by the "Palestinian" Israeli conflict.If only... -- this is what they have been selling us for so many years -- if only we'd be on the side of the "palestinian" Arabs, all would be singing kumbaya, the "peace loving" Arab world would just come rushing to embrace us. LIARS! Never mind the blatant daring hypocrisy of that Arab world,...

ISRAEL - PEACE - SURVIVAL, NOT GENOCIDE! In the beginning...Israel has always faced genocide, from the moment the Islamo Arab fascist leader, the infamous [later on exposed as Hitler's buddy] Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini has called, incited, led to "kill the Jews" in the 1920s. The Mufti, that prior to inciting to "kill the Yahud [Jews]" & leading massacres such as Hebron 1929 and the Farhud in 1941, has participated in the massacres and genocide of Christians, the Armenian Genocide that is [http://Armenian-Genocide.org], where 1.5 Million Christians were brutally murdered. An ally of the Nazi "Fuhrer": Adolph Hitler,...

Against heavy odds, the American justice system has prevailed once again. After 19 days of deliberation, a jury in Dallas did not return even one guilty verdict on almost 200 charges brought against officials of the Holy Land Foundation Muslim charity. The prosecution laid out a bizarre theory that HLF, by sending money to feed orphans in Palestine, was freeing up funds that were then used to pay for acts of terror. Most Americans did not get to hear how their hard-earned tax dollars are being wasted to counter nonexistent "Muslim conspiracies" to overthrow the American Constitution and impose Shariah...

One of the more clandestine groups in radical Islam is the Muslim Brotherhood. Originating in Egypt in 1928, the group has been outlawed in Egypt yet it members hold seats in the Egyptian government. That this radically fundamentalist Islamist group is the parent organization to some of the most violent terror groups operating today. It thrives as a pseudo professional association for terrorists while feigning legitimacy as a political movement. So, what is the Muslim Brotherhood and why should every American be concerned about its activities both within the United States and around the world? The Muslim Brotherhood has become...

The Jerusalem-based Institute for Contemporary Affairs recently released a report authored by Lt. Col. Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi that concludes, to nobody's particular surprise, that the Gaza Strip has become a haven for al-Qaida terrorists. Gaza, part of the biblical "land of the Philistines" was the place where Samson toppled the Temple of Dagon on his enemies, giving his life in the process. Gaza was first conquered for Israel by King David and subsequently fell to the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, Persians and Greeks. But in the days of King David, it was part of Israel. In Jesus' day, it was...

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict could visit the Holy Land next year, Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Thursday after a private audience with the Pontiff. "His initial inclination is to do it next year," Peres told a news conference. "I believe he will try to do whatever he can to have his visit not postponed for any length of time." The Pope told Peres's predecessor two years ago that he hoped to visit Israel in 2006, but that failed to happen and his spokesman said the timing of a visit was still not clear. "As you know, the Pope...