AMMAN — The day Pope Francis arrives in Jordan on May 5 marks the peak of many months of “hard work and planning” coordinated between private and government agencies preparing for his visit and guests coming to the Kingdom from all over the world, stakeholders said.  

Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) General Director Abdel Razaq Arabiyat told The Jordan Times in an interview this week that JTB has been “active preparing for the papal arrival since His Holiness confirmed in January his visit to the Kingdom”.

The JTB will seize this opportunity to declare Jordan as the Holy Land, rather than a “gateway” as it was promoted previously.

“We [JTB] have launched a new brochure with new slogan: Jordan is the Holy Land, and are now in the process of promoting it worldwide through social media and all other means,” Arabiyat said.

“We are being effective in terms of online outreach and social media that put us in touch with targeted audiences in almost all the European countries, along with Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon.”

The pontiff’s one-day visit to the Kingdom is the fourth by a head of the Catholic Church in half a century, starting with Pope Paul VI’s tour of Jordan and Palestine in 1964.

Director General of the Catholic Centre for Studies and Media Father Rifat Bader told The Jordan Times that a Jordanian and Palestinian delegation visited the Vatican last week and met with heads of the media and liturgical department.

Father Bader, who is the visit’s spokesperson in Jordan, told The Jordan Times that they have agreed on the new slogan of the Pope’s visit: a picture of His Holiness taken in the Vatican City, with the white dove of peace touching on his hand.

Father Bader said that the mass the Pope is scheduled to hold at Amman Stadium in Al Hussein Sports City was also thoroughly discussed.

“The mass is a landmark in the pontiff’s visit to the Kingdom; beside the fact that  several foreign and Arab bishops will attend the event, almost 200 Jordanian children will receive their first communion that day,” Bader said, adding that more than 50,000 people are expected to attend the event.  

Pope Francis will be the third Pope to hold a mass in the Amman Stadium, after Benedict XVI in 2009 and Pope John Paul II in 2000.

During his visit to the Kingdom, the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics will lead interfaith dialogue, and meet Muslim and Christian religious leaders, according to the visit’s spokesperson.

SOURCE:   JORDAN TIMES