c. 1999 Religion News Service
ST. LOUIS _ Saying the United States faces a “time of testing,” Pope John Paul II began his 30-hour whirlwind visit to this Midwestern river city Tuesday (Jan. 26) by urging Americans to “resist the culture of death” and instead “stand steadfastly on the side of life.”
During the first of his two half-days in St. Louis, John Paul met with President Bill Clinton, was seen by thousands as his motorcade made its way from Lambert Field International Airport to downtown, and spoke at a Christian rock-charged youth rally at Kiel Center, where more than 21,000 screamed with glee as he entered.
It was a day for the pope to span generations as well as cultures, and he juggled quotes from the Scripture with references to home run kings Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire _ a St. Louis Cardinal with a god-like status of his own here. John Paul urged his young audience to”share the Eucharist every Sunday in your parishes”and”do not listen to those who tell you that chastity is passe.” The 78-year-old pope arrived in St. Louis in the early afternoon from Mexico City, the only other stop on his current visit to North America, which, given his failing health, could well be his last.
In a brief arrival ceremony at Lambert Field, the frail but animated John Paul was greeted by the politically beleaguered President Clinton, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt and a host of U.S. Catholic officials as well as state and local government officials.
John Paul stuck with familiar themes in his public remarks, condemning abortion and euthanasia and “every form of violence” _ lumping together under that heading drug trafficking, racism, “mindless” destruction of the environment, poverty and hunger, “particularly abhorrent weapons such as anti-personnel mines” and armed conflict between nations.
After the public ceremony, John Paul and Clinton met privately for 20 minutes in a Missouri Air National Guard hanger. It was the fourth meeting between the two leaders.
A joint White House-Vatican statement said the two leaders addressed”some of the present challenges to peace and justice around the world and the ways in which mutual cooperation could bring an end to conflict and relief to suffering populations.” In his public remarks, Clinton praised John Paul as a champion of “human rights, human dignity and religious freedom.” For two decades as pope, “you have lifted our spirits and lifted our hearts,” said Clinton.
“People still need to hear your message that all are God’s children, all have fallen short of his glory,” Clinton said. “All of the injustices of yesterday cannot excuse a single injustice today.”
In his comments, John Paul _ slowed by age and illness _ mixed moral and social teachings with which he has long been associated.
John Paul’s reference to armed conflict came on a day when the United States again tangled with Iraq. Monday evening, in Mexico, the pope’s spokesman Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls criticized the U.S. missile attacks against Iraq, saying they only make the situation in Iraq worse for innocent civilians.
The pope has also long opposed the U.S.-led economic boycott of Iraq, saying that, too, impacts civilians most harshly.
There was no initial word on whether Iraq was discussed in the private meeting between the pope and Clinton.
While the papal exhortation against armed conflict was in his official text, John Paul skipped that section when he spoke. More and more the pope has dropped portions of speeches as a concession to his deteriorating health, but the Vatican considers the full statement the official text.
At Lambert Field, the pope recalled the fight against slavery and racism.
“America faces a similar time of trial,” with the conflict today being “between a culture that affirms, cherishes and celebrates the gift of life, and a culture that seeks to declare entire groups of human beings _ the unborn, the terminally ill, the handicapped, and others considered `unuseful’ _ to be outside the boundaries of legal protection.
“Because of the seriousness of the issues involved, and because of America’s great impact on the world as a whole, the resolution of this new time of testing will have profound consequences for the century whose threshold we are about to cross.
“Only a higher moral vision can motivate the choice for life,” John Paul continued, saying “the values underlying that vision will greatly depend on whether the nation continues to honor and revere the family as the basic unit of society.”
The pope’s St. Louis visit marked the fifth time the Polish-born spiritual leader of some 1 billion Catholics around the globe has visited the United States.
From the St. Louis airport, a motorcade brought the pope _ riding in a new version of his familiar “popemobile” _ to the packed Kiel Center, filled with some 21,000 mostly high school and college-age young people for the all-day “Light of the World Youth Gathering,” the first of two large public events scheduled for the papal visit.
Thousands more filled a nearby plaza area _ dubbed “Papal Plaza” for the day _ to watch the Kiel event on jumbo screens, dance to Christian-oriented rock groups, buy papal momentos and soak up the excitement.
In an unusual blending of Christian youth culture, many of the groups _ such as the popular dc Talk, the featured act inside Kiel _ were evangelical Protestants, not Catholic.
Just the same, young nuns could be seen dancing _ although with far less abandon than others around them _ as dc Talk pounded out hard rock, sang”Jesus is still all right with me,”and shouted”we’re just a bunch of Jesus freaks.” “It’s incredible! Incredible! I’ll remember this forever,” said an energized Brian Schwentker, a 15-year-old from Washington, Mo. “Awesome. Just awesome to be here.”
John Paul’s other major event in St. Louis is a Mass set for Wednesday morning at the Trans World Dome that’s expected to attract some 100,000 people. Additionally, John Paul _ completing the 85th foreign trip of his 20-year pontificate _ was set to participate in two other motorcades and lead an evening prayer service at the ornate Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis before his Wednesday return to Rome.
But first, the pope turned his attention to the future of his church _ young people.
Speaking at Kiel, the pontiff urged his audience to follow the lead of the Apostle Paul, when, as the Bible says, he told Timothy to”train yourself for devotion.””These are important words for every Christian … they are especially important for you, the young people of the church. And so you need to ask yourselves: What training am I to do in order to live a truly Christian life?” Then, switching to McGwire and Sosa, John Paul said young Christians can feel the same excitement the two baseball players felt as they chased the Major League home run record last season if”you train for a different goal: the goal of following Christ, the goal of bringing his message to the world.””If we lose the Catholic youth, we lose the church,” said the Rev. Bob Hermann, a suburban St. Louis parish priest. “It’s so appropriate that the Holy Father puts special emphasis on the youth.”
Tuesday’s youth rally began with a milelong march that snaked its way up from the Mississippi River waterfront and Gateway Arch, the city’s famous landmark, to Kiel. Scouts led the way carrying the Vatican and U.S. flags, followed by the flags of dozens of other nations.
In cold but sunny weather, young people walked with arms around each other’s shoulders, shouted “We love the pope,” sang Christian pop songs as loud as they could and generally acted as if they were having the time of their lives.
Sister Kathleen Murphy, who works with the elderly in Queens, N.Y., walked along with the young people and wondered what they would retain of the experience after the pope had gone.
“I suppose a lot of it is just fun, but I think it can’t help but have an impact. For some it will last, for a few it may change their life. Of course, for others it will just be a moment in history,” she said.
Few of the young people seemed to have such concerns.
“Sure it’s fun, but it’s also a pilgrimage of sorts to come here,” said Leigh Larson, 17, who came to St. Louis with a parish group from Huron, S.D. “It’s a chance to pray with the pope. You can’t get any more spiritual than that.”
Elizabeth Clark, 17, from the St. Louis suburb of Wentzville, Mo., said “more and more young people really are in love with Jesus and the pope. The bad kids get the attention, but we’re here too.”
However, Dean R. Hoge, a church sociologist at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., cautioned against reading too much into the comments of young people enthralled by a papal visit.
“You don’t have a representative sample of Catholic youth there,” he said. “In truth, the views of young Catholics in America are not different than the views of non-Catholic young people.
And like older American Catholics, Hoge said, young Catholics tend to “pick and choose” which of John Paul’s _ and the church’s _ dictates they wish to follow.
A recent University of Chicago survey, said Hoge, shows young Catholics to be even more in favor than their parents of ordaining female priests and allowing priests to marry _ both of which are opposed by John Paul.
In addition, less than 15 percent of young people _ defined as under age 29 by the survey _ said premarital sex was always wrong, compared to more than 50 percent of older Catholics, Hoge added.
Still, he said, he is not surprised by the enthusiastic greeting young Catholics tend to give the pope whenever he is in the United States.
“He’s a hero, and he’s one of theirs. That’s a potent combination, so they love the experience of the pope. Following his teachings away from the youth rally is another matter,” said Hoge.
More than 100 plywood confessionals were erected to allow the young people and other Catholics to participate in the sacrament of reconciliation. “As a Catholic, I don’t do this as much as I should,” said Sarah Bielaski, 17, from Arlington, Va. “But I had to do this before seeing the pope. I wanted to be as pure as possible.”
DEA END RIFKIN
