Israel and Jordan plan Mu welcome

PONTIFF TO FLY BY U.N. JET
By Our Special Correspondent BOTH Israel and Jordan have reacted warmly to the announcement that Pope Paul VI will go as a pilgrim to the Holy Land next month. The Lebanon government is believed to have invited the Pope to call there too, and Orthodox Church leaders are hoping to meet him on the soil where Christianity was born.
Patriarch A thenagoras of Constantinople has even spoken of a "holy summit" in Jerusalem, though this is taken to mean a "spiritual encounter" and not an occasion for negotiation.
The Pope will discuss the aims of the visit in his first Christmas message to the world on December 23.
Vatican sources have received the Orthodox suggestions warmly. and say that Pope Paul would be "greatly pleased if leaders of other Christian bodies were to join him" on the pilgrimage. The significance of this. they say, would be tremendous. Fr. Pierre Duprey, of the Vatican Secretariat, went to Constanti nople this week for talks with the Patriach.
The Israeli Premier, Levi Eshkol, has been appointed head of a special ministerial committee charged with the arrangements for receiving the Pope. and a joint Israeli-Jordanian committee may be set up to coordinate plans—a unique act of Jewish and Arab cooperation.
The Jordanian Premier, Sherif Hussain Bin Nassir, has said that Jordan wholeheartedly welcomes the visit, and considers it "a great and special honour and blessing."
The Israeli committee includes Mrs. Golda Meir, minister for foreign affairs, Dr. Zerah Warhaftig, minister for religious affairs, and Mr. Behor Shitrit, minister of police. The cabinet has issued the following statement : Itinerary "The decision of Pope Paul VI to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land which he announced at the ecumenical council of the Catholic Church is of great importance. This is a unique and memorable event.
"The government welcomes the Pope's intention to visit our country.
"Every effort will be made to ensure that the circumstances of the visit and all necessary arrangements will he fully in keeping with its declared purpose, and with the unique status the Pope holds for hundreds of millions of the Catholic Church's adherents."
The centre of the Pope's pilgrimage will be the old city of Jerusalem, which now lies partly in Jordan and partly in Israel.
Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Calvary and the Church of the Hof}, Sepulchre are also in Jordan, but the Pope will have to cross into Israel to visit Nazareth. Capernaum (the home of St. Peter) and the Lake of Genesareth.
• The Pope's movements are likely to be as follows: Saturday, January 4: Departure from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, Rome, by jet plane of the Alitalia line laid on by the United Nations: arrive at Amman, capital of Jordan; drive to Jerusalem, where the Pope will stay for two nights at the residence of the Apostolic Delegate, which lies in the Jordan sector of the old city.
Sunday, January 5: Cross to Israel to visit Nazareth and Continued on back page, col. 3