Rather, the Pope wants to travel by an ordinary car during his visit from May 24-26.

Most heads of state use bullet-proof transport in the Middle East.

Fears about security for the pontiff have been rising in Israel amid concerns that Francis's pilgrimage could be disrupted by extremists.

Following a series of threats to Christians and the desecration of holy sites, Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch warned of a "wave of extremist terror" in Israel.

Patriarch Fouad Twal said that a wave of fanaticism and intimidation against Christians was "poisoning" the festive spirit in the city in the run-up to the historic visit.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said: "The Pope wants an open popemobile and a normal car."

"The local security officials took the wishes of the Pope into consideration. I don't think there was too much discussion about that," the Jesuit said.

Previous pontiffs were driven in bullet-proof limousines on trips, after the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

Security broke down and police were unable to control crowds in Brazil last year when Francis was driven around Rio de Janeiro in a small silver Fiat, at his own request.

But Fr Lombardi said he did not expect similar scenes in the Middle East because Catholics are a minority there.

The Pope has invited a Muslim and a rabbi to join him on the visit to the Holy Land in what the Vatican called "an absolute first".

Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Omar Abboud are long time friends from Francis's days as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Francis wanted to show that it was "normal" to have friends from other faiths, Fr Lombardi said.

The Vatican has emphasised that the Pope's main purpose on the trip is to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew are scheduled meet four times during the pope's visit.

This comes 50 years after the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, which was a landmark opening in ecumenical dialogue.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic News Service
• NBC News
• Image: Huffington Post

The Hamas government has issued a ban on coeducational schools, which means that the five Christian schools on the strip, two Catholic and three Protestant, may have to close. Officials insist the decision was not directed at Christians, but they happen to run the only coeducational institutions in the territory.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, plans to meet Gaza's prime minister to appeal the move. Among other things, presumably he'll point out that these Christian schools serve a largely Muslim population.

For purposes of this column, the way I learned about the situation is almost as revealing as the order itself. As it happens, I received an email from the Israeli embassy to the Holy See, passing along a brief article from the Catholic Herald in the U.K.

Israeli officials clearly felt the story merited attention, and for fairly obvious reasons: It makes Hamas look bad.

It was a small reminder of a larger point: It's often difficult to tell the full story of anti-Christian persecution around the world and a main reason why is the distorting effect of politics, which tends to bring only part of the picture into view. Nowhere is that more clear than the Holy Land.

Many Arab Christians, in tandem with their liberal sympathizers in the West, emphasize the negative impact of Israeli security policies while downplaying Islamic radicalism. On the other side, Israelis and their conservative allies insist that Israel's Christian population is actually growing while pouncing on every perceived Palestinian outrage.

The truth is that Christians face hardships on both sides of the divide, and often for similar reasons. Continue reading

Sources

• John L. Allen Jr in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: The Counter Jihad Report

John L. Allen Jr is a senior columnist for National Catholic Reporter

But the Vatican called for the further steps of a sovereign independent homeland for the Palestinian people and an internationally guaranteed special statute for the city of Jerusalem.

The decision to give the state of Palestine non-member observer status at the UN — the same status as the Holy See — was carried by 138 votes to 9, with 41 abstentions.

"For once the international community and the leaders of the nations had the courage not to be influenced by the pressures and to decide in conscience, without calculation," said the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal. "I am grateful and happy for this freedom."

Expressing "joy that I share with all Palestinians", Archbishop Twal said time would make it clear that the vote for the state of Palestine had advantages for Israel.

"It opens the possibility of returning to deal with a moderate and legitimised government," he said.

"I know these people: there is no person more reasonable than Abu Mazen [the familiar Arabic name of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] to return to the path of a final settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict."

Archbishop Twall said Abbas would return from New York as "a real president, the president of a state".

In Bethlehem and other centres of the West Bank, church bells rang out after the vote was announced.

But in Israel the government rejected the decision. It immediately announced plans for 3000 new settlement homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — some of them in a crucial part of the hoped-for Palestinian state — and said it would withhold more than $NZ1.2 million of taxes and customs dues collected for the Palestinian Authority.

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Catholic News Service

Fides

Associated Press

Image: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem