Top Vatican diplomat consecrates Catholic church at Jesus baptism site

BETHANY BEYOND THE JORDAN, JORDAN —  The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on Friday consecrated a new church at a place on the banks of the Jordan River that the Catholic Church officially recognizes as the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Parolin inaugurated and consecrated the Church of the Baptism of the Lord at Al-Maghtas, known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan, before thousands of Jordanians, Palestinians, other Arabs and diplomats. “My presence here today, according to the wishes of the pope, is meant to be a tangible sign of the closeness of the whole Church to

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