ROME — Talks have begun for Pope Benedict XVI to make his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories next year, Vatican and Israeli officials said Thursday.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Thursday that “diplomatic contacts are underway to study the possibility of the pope visiting the Holy Land” in 2009. Mordechay Lewy, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, confirmed that a visit was being discussed but said the “details were not yet settled.”
Reports of the possibility of a papal visit first appeared Thursday in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which said the pope had accepted an invitation from President Shimon Peres to visit Israel in May.
The news came after weeks of tension between the Vatican and Israel over the beatification of Pope Pius XII, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958.
The long-simmering issue came to the fore again this fall, as the Vatican honored the 50th anniversary of his death. Some Jews say that Pope Pius did not do enough to save Jews during the Holocaust.
