On the Road to Bethlehem

Today, there were highs and lows.  We started with mass at the Con-Cathedral in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem (No I haven't made a mistake, it really was "con-").  The main celebrant was the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, together with the Bishop, 4 priests and a deacon who are on the pilgrimage).  What a lovely man!  He was explaining the problems that the Christians were having because Israel has built this high fence separating the Jews from both the Christians and the Muslims.  There are now only 10,000 Christians left in Jerusalem out of a population of about 1,000,000.  When some sell their houses before emigrating temporarily, he said you knew they would never come back.  Our guide has also talked about this - he is a Latin catholic too.
We left Jerusalem to go to Bethlehem and very soon we could see the fence, which at this crossing point is metal and very high.  We were warned not to get out our cameras as it is a military area and as it would cause problems which would result in delays.  Further on our guide pointed out a hill which was covered in new houses and flats.  Only Jews were allowed to buy these even though it was Palestinian land.  When we got to Bethlehem we saw another development.  This time it was not on the Jewish side, but none of them were selling because the wall was just behind it was barbed wire,so it was quite likely that the fence might be moved in front of it, which would mean the Palestinians would have to sell .
We then went into a Catholic school and was addressed by the Principal. in the beautiful Church of Our Lady of Fatima.

Then the kids came out for break and we chatted to them.  They were just like the kids back at home.

We had lunch is the biggest restaurant I have ever seen - there are about 200 of us and we didn't fill half of it.

We went out to the Shepherd's field where some archaeology is going on.  They don't really know where exactly the shepherds were as they roamed around.  This was a Christmas scene in a cave similar to where they would have sheltered.  

There is a fairly new church there which is built to resemble a tent which has some lovely murals on the theme of the shepherds.

Lastly, we had some time to look at olive wood produce at a co-operative.