This ruling has been put to the test on many levels, dialogue and otherwise, and no less so as the year 2000 approaches. The pope, by encouraging the Christian faithful to come on pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, presents us with fascinating opportunities and incredible logistical problems. The mere fact that several million Catholic pilgrims are expected to visit a country that receives only two and a half million tourists a year will present enormous complications for Israel's citizens and the forces of law and order, as well as a major test to Israeli-Palestinian and interfaith relations. Even the smallest negative event is likely to be blown out of proportion by the press, which is ever-hungry for sensationalism. As we are well aware, it is much easier to blow up a bridge than to build one.
Education is needed on all sides.
People of good will must begin planning for the millennial millions by educating Israelis who deal with the public. They must also educate the pilgrims who will come here about the peoples of the land so that their pilgrimage to the Holy Land will be a human encounter, and not just an encounter with the dead stones of the past. Nurturing the Security to Encounter and Exchange Religion is inextricably bound up with all the components of human identity. The more comfortable we are within our more intimate communities, the more we can feel ourselves as part of a broader group, without compromising our individuality. Likewise, the more insecure we are, the more we tend to cut ourselves off and nurture the insular components of our identity instead of focusing on the broader universal dimension.