Next week, he's off to Camaroon and Angola, and just this morning, the Vatican Press Office announced that he's planning another trip - this time to the Holy Land - after Easter.
Accepting the invitation of the king of Jordan, the President of Israel, the President of the Palestinian National Authority and of the Catholic Bishop's Assembly, His Holiness Benedict XVI will make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from April 8 to 15, 2009, stopping at Aman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth.
That's the end of the official communication posted today, but in the coming days, the negotiations will continue. Plans will include who he will visit, for how long, where they will meet, and even what he will say ... all very sensitively crafted but no doubt with his own mixture of pastoral sensitivity and characteristic forthrightedness.
Considering the significance of these lands to the historical happenings that are so central to the Church, and the unrest that has characterized the Holy Land for so long, this journey will be one of personal pilgrimage as well as international political positioning.
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