PRIVATE VISITS TO CHURCHES IN TABGHA AND CAPERNAUM
VATICAN CITY, MAR 24, 2000 (VIS) - At 4 p.m.
this afternoon, John Paul II will meet Ehud
Barak, prime minister of Israel, at the Shrine of the Mount of
the Beatitudes at Korazim.
At 4:30 p.m., the Pope will visit Tabgha on the
northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee where
he will visit the church of the Multiplication of the Loaves.
According to tradition, the rock upon which Jesus placed the bread
later became the altar of a church. The remains of
this church, which was constructed in 350
A.D., lie to the right of the modern-day church which is entrusted
to the care of Benedictine fathers.
The Holy Father will then visit the church of
the Primacy of Peter, which was
reconstructed in 1933 by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. From
there he will travel to Capernaum, also on the Sea
of Galilee, where he will be able to see the
Shrine of the House of Peter which was inaugurated on
June 29, 1990 by Cardinal Simon Lourdusamy and is tended by the
Custody of the Holy Land.
Following these private visits, John Paul II
will return by helicopter to the apostolic
delegation where he will dine and spend the night.
|