BETHANY BEYOND THE JORDAN, Jordan (Solène Tadié/National Catholic Register) — The Jan. 10 inauguration of a vast church on the very spot where Christ was baptized by St. John the Baptist in the Jordan River was an event of significant symbolic importance, both spiritually and diplomatically.
It also reflected the Hashemite kingdom’s determination to establish itself as an essential stop-off point for pilgrims to the Holy Land, as well as a haven of peace for the world’s Christian faithful, who are increasingly reluctant to travel to a region torn apart by geopolitical and ethnic-religious conflicts.
“So many biblical events and figures meet here that we could say that this place embraces the entire expectation of the Old Testament as directed to the coming of Christ, the manifestation of the Father,” said the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at the ceremony of consecration of the altar on Friday morning, also attended by the patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, son of Prince Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan.
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