Place of Christ's baptism topic of the debate in the Middle East

Senior officials, senators, lawmakers and Church leaders  denounced recent statements by Israeli authorities on the Judith Church on the west bank of the River Jordan and renaming it the "Baptism Church".

Senior officials, bishops and Christian clergymen stressed that excavations have clearly proved that the eastern side of the River Jordan is the place where Jesus Christ was baptised, known worldwide as the "Baptism Site", contrary to what the Israelis claimed.

During a meeting yesterday at the interior ministry, they emphasised that it is an “unquestionable historical and religious fact” that Jordan’s Baptism Site is the place where Christ was baptised.

Minister of Interior Mazen Saket said the Baptism Site has been recognised by several top Christian leaders and historians, adding that the site was inaugurated by the late Pope John Paul II in 2000.

Similar remarks were published on Monday in the statement of representatives of  Orthodox Churches of East, who met at the place of baptism, about 40 kilometers west of Amman at the invitation of the Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem.

Source: Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral