washingtonpost.com – The Church of the Nativity, Jesus’s birthplace, gets its first repairs in more than 500 years

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — When Pope Francis arrives here Sunday on his first trip to the Holy Land as pontiff, he will enter the Church of the Nativity for private contemplation at the grotto believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus Christ. He may also notice that the church is falling apart. The 1,700-year-old basilica …