When Pope John Paul II lands at Ben-Gurion Airport on March 21 for an unprecedented six-day papal pilgrimage in Israel (including one day in the Palestinian Authority), he will be embodying the Vatican's new theology, whose key point is that the Jews are not rejected but still blessed by God. Ironically, this new doctrine emerged under Paul VI, who presided over the 1965 Second Vatican Council that repudiated the charge of deicide and spiritually embraced the Jewish people. But it was John Paul II who institutionalized the breakthrough, deepened its theological implications and passionately spread its message.

For John Paul, this journey is the climax of his papacy. Since becoming pope in 1978, he has repeatedly invoked the year 2000, keenly conscious of leading the church into the new millennium. Vatican officials, seeking to emphasize its spiritual rather than political complexion, cite three goals for this pilgrimage: to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to encourage ecumenism among Christian denominations, and to promote interfaith dialogue with Judaism and Islam.

Obviously, the man whose journeys to Poland helped defeat Soviet communism well understands the political power of a pilgrimage. And he is, after all, coming here not only as a pilgrim to the Christian holy places but also as a pilgrim to the Jews and to local Christians and Muslims, to Israelis and Palestinians. But that, say Vatican officials, is precisely the point: The pope isn't coming to support one side over the other but to embrace the suffering peoples of the Holy Land.