Today the Pope will say Mass at the Amman stadium after which he will go the Wadi-AlKharrar on the Jordan river, one of two sites where it is believed Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. He will visit the second site on the Israeli-occupied West Bank tomorrow. He will arrive in Israel this evening and will be there and in the Palestinian territories until Sunday.
A 10-year-old girl who will present a jar of Holy Land soil for the Pope to kiss on his arrival in Israel today said yesterday she expected the Pontiff to ask Jews for forgiveness during his pilgrimage.
"He's coming here to advance world peace and strengthen the link between the church and the Jews," Ms Dafna Bar-Sadeh told Israeli Army Radio.
"He will also ask for forgiveness for the church's failure to protect the Jews during World War Two and for its having persecuted Jews for thousands of years while blaming them for killing Jesus," said Dafna.
"I'm not sure all these things are on the Pope's agenda," her interviewer replied. Dafna will be joined by two other children, a Christian and a Moslem, in presenting the jar of earth to the Pope, who no longer bends down to perform the soil-kissing gesture.