Pope Francis arrives in Jerusalem

After a brief hop by helicopter from Lod to Jerusalem, the pope arrives on Mount Scopus for a meeting with his Eastern Orthodox counterpart, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.

The two are slated to hold a private meeting later this evening.

Pope Francis is greeted on touchdown at the Mt. Scopus helipad by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, city officials, the president of the Hebrew University, the head of Hadassah Hospital and children of Jerusalem. Some of the children are from a school for both Jewish and Arab students.

Barkat gives His Holiness a sample of earth from the Holy Land and some fresh fruit grown in Israel, and a plaque with a reproduction of the Siloam Inscription, which he describes as proof of “our mutual future of the city of Jerusalem.”