Pope Francis lands in Bethlehem - May 25

Mangalore Today News Network

Bethlehem, May 26, 2014:  Jubilant, flag-waving Palestinians greeted Pope Francis in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, where he was to celebrate Mass on a stage next to the Church of the Nativity, built over Jesus’ traditional birth grotto.

Pope Francis landed on May 25, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem in a symbolic nod to Palestinian aspirations for their own state as he began a busy second day of his Mideast pilgrimage, reports from Bethlehem inform.

Previous popes always came to the West Bank after first arriving in Tel Aviv, Israel. Francis, however, landed at a Bethlehem helipad aboard a Jordanian helicopter and immediately headed into an official welcoming ceremony and meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In its official program, the Vatican referred to Abbas as the president of the “state of Palestine.” “The fact that he is coming straight from Jordan to Bethlehem, without going through Israel,” is a tacit recognition of a Palestinian state, said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian Christian who is a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Francis called the stalemate in Israel-Palestine talks “unacceptable.”