"The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life," he said. The next day, the 78-year-old pope preached to 100,000 people at the Trans World Sports Dome, urging Roman Catholics to extend the crusade to protect human life and to include murderers on death row. The crowd approved with raucous laughter and applause. After being presented with a hockey stick, the pope rose from his armchair and briefly lowered his staff and used it to mime the motion of a hockey pass. But his spirit seemed to be buoyed by the boisterous crowd. The ailing pope, whose voice was slurred as the result of Parkinson's disease, was at times difficult to understand. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire, who is Catholic. Louis, a cavernous indoor sports arena, he was greeted by about 20,000 teenagers waving yellow scarves, screaming and chanting "We love you," as well as the St. The Vatican's main concern seemed to be that the moral vision laid out by the pope not be drowned out by the awkward iconography of the moment. Louis, as the Monica Lewinsky scandal embroiled the country. It was a potentially awkward moment when Pope John Paul II shook hands with President Bill Clinton at an airport in St. "Stand up for purity." Clad in a gold-trimmed miter and vestments, he spoke from a majestic altar draped with papal flags of purple and gold and brilliantly illuminated with hundreds of spotlights. "Stand up for marriage and family life!" the pope said. In his homily, he exhorted the faithful, and young people in particular, to care for the poor, the hungry, the homeless and people with AIDS, and to spread religious ideals in a world moving toward the third Christian millennium, wrote The Times. The largest event and the centerpiece of his four-day visit was a Mass with 125,000 congregants on the rain-soaked playing fields of the 50-acre Great Lawn in Central Park. Outside, the pope broke from behind his bulletproof shields and security guards when he went on an unexpected stroll on the streets of New York. He recited the rosary with more than 3,000 invited guests at St. If America were to turn in on itself, would this not be the beginning of the end of what constitutes the very essence of the American experience?" "Today, as before, the United States is called to be a hospitable society, a welcoming culture. Credit Paul Hosefros /The New York TimesĪt Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands, before a wet but jubilant crowd of 83,000 people, he intensified his call to America to preserve its openness to immigrants and its social support of the poor. The pope led vespers for 1,800 guests, including Bob Hope and the Clintons, at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark. "If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life from conception until natural death." His visit concluded in Detroit, where he delivered his strongest anti-abortion language of the trip. There, the pope met with 100 Catholic AIDS patients, including two priests.Īsked about the causes of AIDS, he said, ''The church is doing all that is possible to heal and especially to prevent the moral background of this.'' ''He loves those of you who are sick, those who are suffering from AIDS and from AIDS-related complex.'' ''God loves you all, without distinction, without limit,'' the pope said at the Mission Dolores Basilica. Homosexuals ''are not outcasts'' in the church, said the pope, but instead, ''like all people who suffer, they are in the heart of the church.'' There, he confronted a large group of protesters who shouted "Pope go home" and "Nazi Pope," and carried signs that read, "Curb your dogma." Pope John Paul II's visit to San Francisco underscored the church's conservative attitudes on homosexuality and AIDS. Pope John Paul II in San Francisco, September 1987 Credit Associated Press Openness to others begins in the heart.'' It is expressed in a dialogue that is honest and frank, one that is based on mutual respect. ''Openness to others, by its very nature, excludes selfishness in any form. The pope made an appeal to the president and to 5,000 Alaskans for ''an openness of heart, a readiness to accept differences and an ability to listen to each other's viewpoint without prejudice.'' ''To achieve this aim requires a constant openness to each other on the part of each individual and group,'' he said. It was the pope's second time in Alaska, where, under rainy gray skies, he was greeted by musical concerts and vendors selling Polish sausage sandwiches. It was the second time the two met, and the first since the United States reestablished full diplomatic relations in January of that year, according to The Times. When Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan met while their airplanes refueled at Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska, it was the first time a president and a pope met somewhere other than the White House or Vatican, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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