Mass Celebrated at West Bank Baptismal Site

For the first time in 54 years, Mass is being celebrated at Saint John the Baptist Chapel on the banks of the Jordan River in Qasr al-Yahud, Israel. After Israel took control of the area, the area was laid out with land mines by both the Israeli army and Palestinian gunmen who battled in the area in the 1960s and 1970s. It became a fenced military zone, off limits to pilgrims.