Word: eastern
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Covering the papal newsmaker on the ground proved a bit more challenging; the Pope went by helicopter to all stops, while reporters had to follow by car. Wynn and Eastern Europe Correspondent Barry Kalb devised a system of "leapfrogging" the papal party. One would spend a day covering the Pope, while the other drove to the next destination and saw to all the complicated logistical and bureaucratic arrangements the trip required...
...Poland, the contest between Christ and Marx is far more explicit than in Latin America. Every papal gesture, every deft historical reference had political connotations in this setting. The week saw the first great public outpouring of religious and nationalistic fervor permitted since the Communists took command of Eastern Europe. Even though he never once mentioned the Communist Party or the Soviet Union by name, the new Pope was surprisingly blunt in challenging the power of the Kremlin on the issue of human freedom...
...Ephesians 4:5-6 called on first-generation church congregations to overcome their internal divisions. In doing so, he enunciated an ecumenical policy of broad social import. Vatican analysts had already expected that this Pope from the East might seek to heal the 11th century break with the Eastern Orthodox churches more ardently than to mend the 16th century split-off of Protestantism. The Pope's sermon surveyed the centuries of missionary activity in present-day Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and, finally, Soviet Lithuania...
...What will we do with this Slav Pope?' they will say," John Paul joked to fellow Poles, describing the nervousness of his Italian aides. But the question will more likely be asked by Communist Party leaders all over Eastern Europe, most crucially perhaps by the Soviets. It is in the Kremlin, more than anywhere else, that the conditions under which the East bloc churches live could be quickly changed, for better or worse. Just as the real area of agreement between the Polish party and the Polish church was a fear of domestic disorder that might activate the Red Army...
Though analysts have worried about such a post-visit backlash and Moscow remained ominously silent about the Polish spectacle, TIME Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Barry Kalb reports that the Pope's visit is unlikely to produce any dramatic result. The Kremlin reluctantly recognizes that the Polish government needs Catholic support and that it could not indefinitely avoid a visit by the most celebrated Pole since Copernicus. Gierek has gradually improved relations with the church and, since that policy has strengthened his regime and his nation...