Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church who is scheduled to make a visit to Israel at the end of May, was recently given seeds from a plant which grew in the Holy Land during the time of Jesus Christ. Seeds from the so-called white Madonna lily, which feature prominently in artistic representations of the Virgin Birth, were developed in laboratory conditions by Dr. Michelle Zakai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba. They, along with other items, were presented to the Pope during a visit to the Vatican by a delegation of Israeli university students, led by University of Haifa’s master degree student Inbar Blum, on the occasion of the end of a semester of studies at the Sapienza University of Rome, sponsored by Israeli and Palestinian universities and UNESCO. Meanwhile, Catholic officials reacted with anger this week to the latest “price-tag” graffiti attack against a prominent Catholic shrine near Jerusalem. Read More
