VATICAN CORNER
The late Pope John Paul II in March 2000 celebrated the new millennium by visiting 15 Holy Land sites. One site: Wadi al Kharrar, or Valley of the Trickling Water, in Jordan on the East side of the Jordan River, was said to be the place where John the Baptist baptized the adult Jesus. But Pope John Paul II was persuaded by Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to also visit a rival baptismal site of Jesus just a few miles away from the first, across the muddy Jordan River, in the West Bank that is controlled by Israel: Qasr Al-Yahud. It was a site revered by Christian pilgrims for more than a thousand years, having 7 churches and monasteries. Because politics involved and of the millions of dollars in annual tourism income at stake, the Vatican and Pope John Paul ll maintained neutrality by visiting both sites and noting that “both banks are visited by hosts of pilgrims honoring the baptism of the Lord.” Archeologists at both sites have found remains of ancient Christian churches and monasteries and believe that they might have been built to commemorate Jesus’ baptism. The West Bank site has been in neglect for many years. Ever since the 6-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967 the West Bank site which is located in a closed military border zone has been denied to Christian because it had been heavily mined and booby trapped by the Israelis to ward off attacks from across the border. But Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994 and their border has been relatively quiet for more than 20 years. A very small area of the mined site was cleared in 2000 to allow a narrow access to the river, enabling pilgrims and Pope John Paul II to come and visit. Israel cleared more of the baptismal site in 2011 and it has since become a popular attraction for visiting Christian pilgrims. However, even today in 2016, the vast majority of the site remains mined and wrapped in barb wire. Israeli defense officials estimate that the area is littered with more than 3,000 antipersonnel and antitank mines and an unknown number of improvised explosive devices. In May, 2016, after working very hard with both the Israeli and the Palestinian authorities and with all the Christian denominations that have churches on the sacred site, the British charity, the Halo Trust, a U.S. and U.K. demining group, acquired permission for the clearing of mines and unexploded ordinance from the rest of the for Princess Diana to walk through an Angolan minefield in 1997. The West Bank site is about 136 acres and the plan is to clear all the mines within two years. The project is described as an example of a great ecumenical cooperative spirit and very uplifting that this sacred site where churches were first constructed in 400West Bank site. The Halo Trust has been doing demining work since 1988 but came to global prominence when it arranged AD is being returned to its proper use. One problem that still remains is raising the 3 million dollars needed to complete the de-mining operations and an appeal is being made to all Christians to help fund this project.
Sources: latimes.com, nytimes.com, news.va, The Wall Street Journal, telegraph.co.uk