Vatican agency to organise pilgrimages to Christian sites

By Taylor Luck

AMMAN – Officials are working with the Vatican to cement Jordan’s status as an official Christian pilgrimage destination.

Baptism Site Commission (BSC) Director Dia Madani on Sunday said the commission is working with the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (ORP), the Vatican-affiliated pilgrimage agency, to organise pilgrimages to the Kingdom.

On a visit earlier last month, an ORP delegation toured the Kingdom’s biblical sites and observed the facilities and services the country has to offer to pilgrims in order to prepare for the tours, according to Madani.

“Under this cooperation, the Opera Romana will bring pilgrims directly to Jordan to visit all our biblical sites,” Madani told The Jordan Times over the phone yesterday.

During the visit, the agency’s CEO Father Caesar Atuire expressed satisfaction with the facilities and the wealth of biblical sites in Jordan, and pledged to begin arranging trips to the Kingdom, he said.

Currently, most visitors come to the Baptism Site as individuals or in small groups, the BSC chief explained, stressing that the cooperation with the ORP will mark the first time the Vatican has organised pilgrimages specifically to Biblical Jordan.

The ORP is the chief body at the Holy See concerned with Catholic pilgrims and currently organises pilgrimages to Rome, France, Portugal, Turkey, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The first batch of pilgrims, expected next month, will comprise 150 visitors who will spend four days touring Jordan’s biblical sites, Madani said.

As part of efforts to organise Vatican-sponsored pilgrimages to Jordan, the ORP will enter negotiations with Alitalia airlines to run direct charter flights to Aqaba and Amman.

With the introduction of charter flights, expected to start early in 2011, the ORP is to increase group size and frequency, expanding the itinerary to seven days.

According to Madani, the week-long tour will take visitors to the Baptism Site, Mount Nebo, Madaba, Um Qais and Pella.

Mount Nebo is the site where it is believed Moses looked over the Promised Land and marks his burial spot, while the nearby Saint George Church in Madaba houses the earliest known map of the holy lands.

The Hellenistic site of Pella is often associated with Penuel, or Peniel, where, according to biblical sources, Jacob wrestled with God in the form of an angel.

Um Qais, formerly the Decapolis League city of Gadara, is believed to be the site of the Miracle of the Gadarean Swine, where Jesus is said to have cast out demons into a herd of pigs.

But the Baptism Site remains the largest draw for Christian pilgrims as it is the site where John the Baptist is believed to have baptised Jesus and preached, as well as where Elijah began his ascent to heaven.

New churches

According to Madani, 13 new churches are to be built on the site representing various denominations, with construction already under way on six of them.

He pointed out that Baptism Site officials have allocated 250 dunums for building three-star hotels in the area, which will increase the value and competitiveness of the pilgrimage packages offered by the ORP. Once the hotels and rest houses are constructed, the area is expected to have 800-1,000 hotel rooms, he said.

Bethany Beyond the Jordan on the east bank of the River Jordan includes a large number of historical churches, baptismal pools and caves that were inhabited by priests.

The site include a staircase leading from the early Byzantine Church of Saint John the Baptist to what is believed to be the old course of the Jordan River, currently flowing 70 metres to the south.

Pope Benedict XVI visited the site in May 2009 as part of his historic tour of the holy lands.

Pope John Paul II previously held a mass at the site in March 2000.

Over 80,000 tourists and pilgrims visited the site in the first half of the year, according to the BSC.

jordantimes