Pope Francis, Eastern Orthodox counterpart meet

From Mount Scopus, home of Hebrew University in the north of Jerusalem, Pope Francis makes his way to the Old City for a meeting with the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I. The two are set to appear together at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditional site of Jesus’s Crucifixion and one of the holiest sites in Christendom.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre (photo credit: CC-BY-SA Anton Croos, Wikimedia Commons)

Phalanxes of priests from the various sects of Christianity and Israeli security officials have gathered in and around the church awaiting Francis’s arrival. Police brass from around the country assemble in the courtyard outside the basilica, accompanied by heavily armed guards.

Before the pope arrives, the church’s bells signal his imminent arrival with a pealing salute.

Police and priests outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. (screen capture: GPO)

The meeting between Francis and Bartholomew marks the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in Jerusalem in 1964.