NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- The Wye Plantation peace accord, signed by Israel and Palestine on October 23, has raised hopes for a papal pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the year 2000, the Vatican's chief foreign-affairs official told reporters today.

      In an off-the-cuff exchange with reporters, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran said that the new agreement opens the way to new possibilities for peace. While Pope John Paul has frequently voiced his desire to visit the Holy Land, the archbishop continued, "everything depends on the peace process and the application of the Wye Plantation accord." He observed that while the agreement itself is a positive sign of the "good will of the leaders of the people in the Holy Land."

      Questioned about his widely publicized statement that the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem is "illegal," Archbishop Tauran responded, "That has always been our position." The archbishop made that statement at a symposium on the future of the Holy City, organized by Jerusalem's Patriarch Michel Sabbah. Since the purpose of that symposium was to clarify the situation in Jerusalem for the benefit of "the bishops of the world's great nations-- especially in the West," the Pope and the Secretary of State agreed that it would be a good time to set forth the official position of the Holy See, he said. "We are repeating what is affirmed in the United Nations resolutions," he added; "We are not alone in taking this position."