POPE RETURNS TO HOLY SEPULCHRE TO PRAY IN CHAPEL OF CALVARY

VATICAN CITY, MAR 26, 2000 (VIS) - After lunch, John Paul II made an unscheduled return to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in order to pray at the Chapel of Calvary. During the morning, he had celebrated Mass in the basilica and prayed at the stone of anointment and at the tomb of the Resurrection.

Fr. Luis Terrato, superior of the basilica, said that at 4 p.m. they had just finished praying vespers when a number of policemen arrived, informing them that the Holy Father was about to return. "I could not believe it," said Fr. Terrato, "the Pope had departed in the morning without having visited the Chapel of Calvary, accessed by a stairway of steep stone steps. As he left, he had looked towards that place, however, we never imagined that he would have returned."

With the help of his assistants, the Pope climbed the 22 steps that lead to Golgotha. After praying for 20 minutes, he left the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.

At 6:30 p.m., the Holy Father travelled to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. There, after personally bidding farewell to government ministers and religious authorities, he was accompanied to the stairs of the plane by President Ezer Weizman and Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel.

The plane, a Boeing 747 of the Israeli national carrier, El Al, took off at 7:15 p.m. After a flight of three and a half hours it landed at the military airport of Ciampino in Rome. John Paul II was received by Massimo D'Alema, Italian prime minister, and Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome. After greeting the authorities present, John Paul II travelled by helicopter to the Vatican.

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