NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will be received by Pope John Paul II in a private audience at the Vatican on Friday, February 19.

      The main topic for discussion during this seventh meeting between the Pope and the Palestinian president will be the preparations for celebrations of the Jubilee Year 2000, especially in the city of Bethlehem. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the president of the Central Committee for the Grand Jubilee, will also take part in the discussions.

      Arafat will be in Rome for a conference sponsored by the United Nations on roughly the same topic. The UN, in an effort to increase worldwide support for the rights of the Palestinian people, has organized an initiative known as Bethlehem 2000. The purpose of the project is to usher in the new millennium in Bethlehem as an era dedicated to peace and reconciliation among peoples.

      The last meeting between Arafat and the Holy Father occurred in June 1998. At that meeting the Palestinian leader personally invited Pope John Paul to come to Bethlehem for the millennium celebrations. Prior meetings between the two had occurred in September 1982, December 1988, April 1990, September 1995, and December 1996.