Last January 10, 2021, a place that preserves and will preserve the scars of the wounds inflicted on it but which, at the same time, will become the sign of a possible peace, reconciliation, and a renewal of peoples. After more than fifty years, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus was celebrated in the shrine on the banks of the Jordan River. In the morning, the Custos (Franciscan superior) of the Holy Land, Fra Francesco Patton, presided over, for the first time in 54 years, a Mass outside the chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist a few meters from the banks of the river, where, according to the Gospel, Jesus received baptism. The area, which is located east of Jericho and on the west bank of the Jordan, had been rendered unusable following the 1967 war, when it became a minefield and military zone.

Source: Beatrice Guarrera, Vatican News