Pope Benedict XVI may visit Jordan as well as Israel during a possible trip next year, the visiting Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Monsignor Fouad Twal, told the ANSA news agency on Monday.The trip "may be broadened to include other stops," Twal was quoted as saying, adding: "I suppose the pontiff will begin his visit in Jordan" as earlier popes have done.
However, the trip remains uncertain, he said. "I'm afraid that if we wait until the time is ripe another two or three pontiffs may come and go," he added.
The Israeli daily Haaretz last month said the pope was planning to visit holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem during the second week of May.
The Vatican confirmed only that diplomatic contacts had begun on a possible papal trip to Israel next year.
Twal said details would be finalised soon and that the pope might announce the trip on Christmas Day, December 25.
The patriarch is at the Vatican for the world meeting of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, which takes place every five years.
Relations between the Vatican and Israel have been strained by the Vatican's decision to press ahead with the process of beatifying controversial World War II-era Pope Pius XII, criticised for his inaction during the Holocaust.
Italy's Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini introduced race laws that from 1943 led to the deportation of more than 8,000 Italian Jews to Nazi death camps.
Historians have pointed out Pius also failed to speak out for more than 1,000 Jews arrested on October 16, 1943, as Nazi troops sacked Rome's Jewish ghetto. Only 15 ever returned from the concentration camps.
Pope Paul VI was the first pontiff to visit Israel, in 1964, and Pope John Paul II visited in 2000.
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(Source: AFP)