Top Vatican diplomat inaugurates, consecrates Catholic church at Jesus’ baptism site

People welcome Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin a she arrives to celebrate mass for the dedication and inauguration of the Church of the Baptism of the Lord at Al-Maghtas, 50km west of Amman on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, Jan. 10, 2025.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Friday consecrated a new Catholic church at Bethany Beyond the Jordan on the banks of the Jordan River officially recognized by the church as the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Parolin’s three-day visit to Jordan coincides with a new exhibition of 90 Jordanian artifacts of the nation's history at the start of Christianity, to be debuted at the Vatican in February.