Visiting John the Baptist in Damascus…

I snapped the photo above at the shrine of John the Baptist in the Umayyad Mosque in Syria–where Pope John Paul II made the first papal visit to a mosque. To read more about my trip to this beautiful shrine in Damascus, please read my new Huffington Post piece “Visiting John the Baptist in Damascus.” A few minutes ago, my friend who happens to be a Coptic priest informed me that the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt commemorated St. John the Baptist last Thursday–a commemoration that continued through yesterday…