Beyond the Jordan
To me, the most fascinating part of the Pope’s trip to the Holy land so far, has not been the various controversies covered in the news, but his visit to the site of the Baptism of Jesus, in Bethany beyond the Jordan. He made this stop just before leaving Jordan for Israel. He was accompanied by the King and Queen of Jordan. Pope Benedict blessed the cornerstone of two new churches for the Latin and Melkite (Eastern Catholic) rites to be built on the spot where there is now a small open-air chapel. Here’s a snippet:
Since the Vatican YouTube Channel has only snippets, I’ve been trying several places online to watch these events the last few days, among them CatholicTV, which has embeddable video, but one that starts up immediately as soon as you open the page, which find annoying; and I’ve had experience with this type in putting up the videos of Archbishop Dolan’s installation.
I found that I enjoy EWTN’s coverage the most, especially since they have the Franciscans commenting. This is a wonderful moment to recall that the Franciscans have had custody of the Holy Places associated with the life of Jesus for 800 years since the time of St. Francis. Host Raymond Arroyo is joined by Aloysisius Florio OFM, now of Washington D.C., who spent 30 years in the Holy Land.
This link is to the main page for archived video of the papal trip, but it also includes a live feed link, which will come up directly in Windows Media Player on your computer (the embedded player that comes up when you click on the top of the page menu gives me some trouble).
More to come, including the Pope’s Mass in the Valley of Josaphat near the Garden of Gethsemane (repeat of live broadcast on EWTN at 7 p.m. ET tonight), and Mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem.
