NEW YORK – Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) and the Jordan Tourism Board North America (JTBNA) will co-sponsor their third study tour to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in October.
Members of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada will visit Jordan from Saturday, 25 October, through Sunday, 2 November. The group will travel nonstop via Royal Jordanian Air from New York’s Kennedy International Airport to Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport in the Jordanian capital.
Among the archaeological sites tour participants will visit are Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, where Jesus was baptized; Mount Nebo, where Moses viewed the Promised Land; Madaba, famous for its mosaic map of Jerusalem dating from A.D. 560; and Petra, whose tombs and temples were carved out of red sandstone some 2,000 years ago.
Projects sponsored by CNEWA are also on the itinerary. These include Mother of Mercy Clinic in Zerqa, operated by the Iraqi Catholic Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine, which specializes in prenatal and infant care, and the Italian Hospital in Amman, which treats Amman’s poor, Jordanian, Palestinian and Iraqi.
Travelers will also have the opportunity to meet with religious and political leaders as well as Jordanian Bedouin Christians, tribal families who were among the first peoples to embrace Christianity after Christ’s ascension.
Located in a strategic part of the Middle East, Jordan has responded to the region’s conflicts by not taking up arms but by taking in refugees, notably Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi, among others.
The custom-made trip will give the travelers an in-depth look at Jordan, a model of unity amid diversity. The country, with few natural resources, counts its people and archaeological attractions as national treasures, to be closely protected yet shared with the rest of the world.
Founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, CNEWA is a special agency of theVatican providing support to the churches and peoples of the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe. Projects include needy child, seminarian and novice sponsorship programs; village redevelopment; health care and education; and interfaith dialogue.
The Jordan Tourism Board is a public-private-sector partnership mandated to brand, position and promote the kingdom as a destination of choice for all travelers.