great expectations

The pope will arrive in Tel Aviv at about noon today. Israeli airspace will be closed and security is super tight. The police have begun a helicopter/air surveillance over Jerusalem - one is flying above the Kidron Valley now where Mass will be celebrated tomorrow. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1241773223829&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull I hear the police will close off the Old City and a sort of curfew imposed after sunset for the next few days for the pope's security. It's certainly no joke here where anti-Catholic sentiments have been running high for the past few months.

If you miseed this segment on the news, then read this about the plight of christians in the Holyland:
"However, even Rossing, a modern Orthodox Jew who heads the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations, says the popular image of Palestinian Christians being ground down by Muslim power is greatly exaggerated. The Palestinian Authority, which is floated financially by the West, has a strong interest in treating Christian residents fairly, he says. Shaking hands with one priest after another in the Old City, he says that while he is not in contact with Christians in Gaza, he is with a countless number in Jerusalem and the West Bank, adding, "I haven't heard from them that their situation has deteriorated."
And to put it in a wider perspective, he says, Christians living in the State of Israel aren't entirely safe, either. In recent years, there have been two full-scale mob attacks by Druse against Christian communities in Galilee. Christians in Jerusalem's Old City have been harassed and spat upon by haredi yeshiva boys. Christian graves on the Mount of Olives have been vandalized, with the evidence showing plainly that it was the work of Jews, Rossing says." (from the Jerusalem Post)


Meanwhile the tone is being set for his arrival by the Israeli media http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1241773222952&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull and the chief rabbi of Haifa http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1241773224180&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

But not all are so welcoming. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1241773219075&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

I'll be concelebrating in the Kidron Valley tomorrow afternoon - and I'll be bringing all your intentions to be offered at the papal Mass. Also on Wednesday morning I'll go to Bethlehem and concelebrate the papal Mass there and will remember you all and your intentions at the Mass. So no class on Wednesday evening via VC. I can't be in 2 places at one time!

By the way on Saturday last, Mr P my parrot fish died; and also an entire nest of 4 baby canaries. The mother didn't know how to feed them so they starved to death. She's too young and doesn't have the experience of brooding. And the cat came back last night and caused another egg to be broken. And it tore up the garbage bag and littered the courtyard with rubbish - Sr. Vincenta was mad and wants us to deal with this stray cat definitively.