JERUSALEM: Pope Benedict XVI travels
on Thursday to Nazareth, the boyhood town of Jesus that is now an Arab-Israeli city, where he will celebrate
mass and meet Israel's right-wing prime minister.
About 40,000 faithful are expected to attend the open-air mass on Mount Precipice, revered by many Christians as the spot where Jesus vanished as a crowd angered by his teachings tried to shove him off a cliff.
Following the mass, the pontiff will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Franciscan convent adjacent to the Basilica of the Annunciation.
The pope's meeting with the hawkish premier comes one day after Benedict's visit to the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, where he held talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, called for a sovereign Palestinian homeland, lamented Israel's "tragic" wall that towers over part of the city and called for an end of the Gaza blockade.
While in Nazareth, a predominantly Arab city where 30 percent of the 66,300 population is Christian, the pope is expected to reiterate his call for Christians to remain in the Holy Land, where they form a tiny and dwindling minority.
The leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics delivered a similar message during mass in Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, urging Christians "to consolidate your presence and to offer new possibilities to those tempted to leave."
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