VATICAN CITY, MAR 27 (ZENIT.org).- John Paul II's visit to Israel has been the country's biggest media event. Over 3,000 reporters were accredited in the Jerusalem Press Office to follow the visit. At the end of the journey, during an interview on Vatican Radio, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, director of the Vatican Press Office, analyzed the impact of the papal pilgrimage to the Holy Land on the media throughout the world.

    The Vatican spokesman said it is important to distinguish between the media in general and the media in Israel. As regards the first, the pilgrimage "became front page news in the newspapers around the world. This means that they understood the importance of the trip, with the aspects the Pope was emphasizing, in other words, that it was a personal pilgrimage, in which the entire Catholic Church was represented in the person of the Pope. In addition, they stressed the improvement of relations and better understanding it promoted in the Jewish world."

    What surprised Navarro-Valls most was the echo the trip had in the Israeli press. "The first few days it revealed a slight mistrust and expressed some doubts. However, when the Pope visited the Memorial to the Holocaust in Yad Vashem, the Israeli press changed and grew enthusiastic with this Pope whom they were seeing firsthand in their land."

    The spokesman is now planning an analysis of all the information that has been published in newspapers. However, he already has a first conclusion: "It could not have turned out better, because opinions of individuals have not betrayed the meaning of the trip. They understood and appreciated it." ZE00032705