In a press statement, Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls described the meeting as «of purely pastoral character.»
The Holy Father has taken the initiative, given «the delicate situation in the Holy Land,» to express «once again his spiritual closeness to those peoples and share the drama of their daily life, too often tried by violent and discriminatory acts,» the director of the Vatican Press Office said.
«The meeting will bring together heads of the Catholic communities of different rites in the Holy Land, and the presidents of some episcopal conferences,» Navarro-Valls said.
«It will offer the possibility to demonstrate the concern of the whole Church for those Christians, in particular for the Catholic community, as well as manifest the common commitment to the continuity of its millenarian presence in the region,» he added.
