Rome - Senior Vatican sources yesterday expressed caution about the possibility that Pope John Paul would mark the new millennium with a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Paddy Agnew writes. Speculation that the Pope would definitely visit Israel next year had been prompted on Monday by an Israeli government announcement following a meeting in Jerusalem between the Israeli Tourism Minister, Mr Moshe Katzav, and Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the chairman of the Vatican's Holy Year committee.
However, security considerations, the current stall in the Middle East peace process and the Vatican's belief that Jerusalem should become an international city and a common centre of worship for Christian, Jew and Muslim alike, rather than the capital of the Israeli state, may all make such a visit problematic.