Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be traveling to Israel next week.

The leader of New York’s sprawling archdiocese will be in Israel for nine days, in advance of his trip to Rome, where he will be made Cardinal, The New York Daily News reports.

Dolan will traveling alongside 50 New York-area priests, and the group is scheduled to be at Jerusalem’s Western Wall and the Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial museum, according to the report. They will also visit the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, two of Christianity’s holiest sites.

Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, told the Daily News that the purpose of the trip was spiritual, not political — and that Dolan would not be meeting with Israeli or Palestinian leaders while in the Middle East.

Dolan will return to New York before heading to Rome month. There, he will be made Cardinal on February 18.

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