Pope to visit Israel in year woo

BY VIVI ANE HEWITT IN ROME
THE ISRAELI MINISTER for Tourism has announced that Pope John Paul II will visit the Holy Land in the year 2000.
Uzi Baram told a Galilee convention on tourist prospects in the area that Israel was "expecting the Pope in a special third minenium pilgrimage".
The Holy Land remains one of the Pope's three dream destinations along with Sarajevo and Lebanon.
If he were to make the trip, he would be likely to follow in the footsteps of Paul VI, the only pontiff ever to travel to the Holy Land.
John Paul would follow the "pilgrims classical itinerary", said Israeli tourist officials.
He would expect to visit the major sites of pilgrimage, most of which are irrthe state of Israel with the exception of Bethlehem, now in the territory of the new Palestinian Authority.
Although reports reaching Rome suggested that the Israeli Minister seemed to have no doubts about the
advent of John Paul II in the Holy Land, the Vatican has not commented on the possibility.
John Paul's travel agenda for 1996, meanwhile, features Latin America, Slovenia and Germany, a trip which could incorporate the city of Wittemberg where the Protestant Reformation started.
Hungary could be the venue of a special ecumenical meeting between the Pope and the sometimes hostile Alexej II, Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow.
The encounter has been proposed by the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma, Hungary, celebrating its 1,000th anniversary next year.
Vatican sources said that Pope John Paul was enthusiastic about the prospects of meeting Alexej II, who had not yet replied to the invitadon.
"This will be a very momentous occasion, especially in view of the Pope's great work for CatholicJewish relations," Jonathan Gorsky from the Council of Christians and Jews told the Herald.