Pope warned against visit to Holy Land

BY VIVIANE HEWITT IN ROME
REPORTS IN ROME this week suggest that Pope John Paul El is intent on undertaking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by the end of the year, although he is being strongly advised against it.
According to one source, named by Jewish diplomatic circles as Davide Cassuto, a former chairman of the Italian Jewish Community in Israel, a leading Vatican diplomat has been trying to convince the Pontiff that a visit now would appear to "sanction Israeli sovereignty Over the Holy City".
The Pope is said to have told Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the Vatican's diplomatic delegate to Jerusalem, that he hoped to go to the Holy Land "as soon as possible". The visit, said Cassuto, could take place after Israel's May elections.
But the Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem, Kamal-Hanna Bathish, has excluded any possibility of a papal pilgrimage in the near future, saying that a papal visit would make no sense when "thousands of Christians from Bethlehem and other localities in Palestine do not have free access to Jerusalem".
Celebrations for the year 2000 have also been occupying Bishop Bathish. As chair of the local Central Jubilee Committee in Jerusalem, he has appealed to the Mayor of Rome, Francesco Rutelli, to help the Holy City with its preparations for the jubilee, telling him "We have many problems in common."
He also added that Israel would have to contribute by improving its hotel accommodation to include cheaper lodgings for pilgrims.