JERUSALEM, OCT. 18, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- The recent violence in the Holy Land has halted pilgrimages, which had been booming in the Jubilee year.
Group travel has been stopped, primarily of pilgrims coming from Europe and the United States.
The last charter flight of Italian pilgrims left Tel Aviv, Israel, last Friday. No other pilgrimages have arrived since then.
Father Frederic Manns, director of the Franciscan Biblical Studies Center in Jerusalem, said: "Never before as in this Jubilee year were there so many pilgrims from all over the world. It was a genuine explosion of pilgrims that seemed to confirm Isaiah's prophecy: All peoples will come to Jerusalem.
"Hotels and holy places were brimming; people waited for hours to visit Calvary or the Bethlehem grotto. However, where good abounds, evil is also activated. Now, everything is blocked."
Zenit - The World Seen From Rome
18. oktober 2000