Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) has landed in Jordan on the first leg of a three-day visit that will also see him commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Roman Catholic Church's rapprochement with the Eastern Orthodox Church.

A major theme of the Pope's historic first visit to the Holy Land will be to offer encouragement to the steadily diminishing numbers of Christian faithful in the Middle East. Pope Francis has publicly expressed dismay at the relentless decline of Christian populations in the Middle East, which is the birthplace of Christianity.

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Certain to be contentious will be the Pontiff's directly visiting Bethlehem in the West Bank, rather than visiting Israel first. Political analysts said this move focuses the spotlight on those displaced when Israel was created.

The Vatican supports a two-state solution to the obstinate conflict between Palestinians and Israel. The official papal agenda describes the Pope's visit to the West Bank as a visit to the "State of Palestine," a phrase that has infuriated Israel.

Pope Francis is expected to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Of equal importance to the diplomatic side of the Papal visit will be the Pope's religious agenda. The Pontiff will meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (Dimitrios Arhondonis) in Jerusalem on May 25 to deepen the "dialogue of love" between Rome and Constantinople that blossomed 50 years ago.

According to the Phanar, the forthcoming meeting between the heads of two of the world's leading religions will endorse the idea that "The spirit of fraternal love and mutual respect has replaced the old polemic and suspicion."

The meeting between the Pontiff and the Ecumenical Patriarch comes on the 50^th anniversary of the historic meeting in the Holy Land between Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I (Aristocles Spyrou) and Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini) that led to restoring the communion between Rome and Constantinople.

The meeting between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I caused Rome to rescind the excommunications of the Great Schism of 1054. It also resulted in the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965 which showed a desire for greater reconciliation between the two churches that were rent asunder for almost a millennium by theological estrangement and mutual mistrust.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis will meet at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to commemorate the meeting between Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I and Pope Paul VI.

The historic meeting in 1964 saw the beginning of a new era in the relations between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople, and indirectly between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy as a whole.