According to the media in Italy and the Vatican, Pope Francis intends to make his first trip to the Holy Land. In late spring, namely from May 24 to 26, the pontiff plans to visit Jerusalem in May, as well as Bethlehem and the capital of Jordan, Amman.
This was also stated by the Pope during his Sunday address: "I want to announce that from May 24 to May 26, with God's help, I will make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land."
The Vatican press service notes that Pope Francis plans to organize a meeting of all representatives of the Christian churches of Jerusalem and other regions. This trip is so far the only planned trip that the pontiff expects in the coming 2014.
Despite the fact that the new year has just arrived, as the media show, the Pope is still as popular as in 2013. A couple of days ago, the pontiff once again attracted attention after he hit the front pages of newspapers. This time, everyone was amused by the story that happened to Francis on New Year's Eve, when he decided to call Spain to congratulate his acquaintances Carmelites. The whole funny thing about the situation is that the Pope simply ... didn’t get through and didn’t come up with anything more reasonable than leaving a message on the answering machine, which was later broadcast on many Spanish radio stations and sounded something like this:
"What can the nuns be so busy with that they can't answer the phone? It's Pope Francis. I wanted to greet you and wish you a Happy New Year. I'll call you back later. God bless you."
The nuns of the Barefoot Carmelite Monastery in Lucena were simply stunned when they heard a message from the head of the Catholic Church on the answering machine. They explained to local reporters that they had known Francis for over 10 years now. The Carmelites were incredibly surprised: they could not even think that the pontiff would remember old acquaintances. The abbess of the monastery, sister Adriana, claims that when she heard the message from the Pope, she was just desperate: the nuns missed this important call because they prayed and did not hear the phone. The sisters carefully tried to contact the Vatican directly, asking for help from the local bishop, but they did not succeed. Fortunately, Pope Francis turned out to be a man of his word and called back the upset nuns that day. He congratulated them on the holiday, inquired about their affairs and blessed not only the Carmelites, but the whole town.
It turns out that Barefoot Carmelites met the pontiff more than ten years ago when he was bishop of Buenos Aires and was named after Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Despite the fact that the nuns and the bishop did not know each other personally and never saw each other, Francis called them regularly and was interested in their affairs, and he also never forgot to wish the sisters a Happy New Year. Even becoming the head of the Catholic Church, Francis did not interrupt a long tradition.
