Word: italian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...would shake each newsman's hand, murmur a greeting, and then return to his compartment." But when John Paul II meets the press, he is outgoing and garrulous. On the flight from Rome to Warsaw, the Pope fielded inquiries in six languages (English, German, Polish, Spanish, Italian, French) and managed a brief conversation with Wynn (in English, though the correspondent also speaks Italian and Arabic). "I touched his arm to get his attention," recounts Wynn. "Without looking-and typical of the personal warmth he exudes -John Paul grasped my hand, turned to me and gave me a warm smile...
...Catholicism. John Paul reached out eloquently to "the Silent Church," the hosts of oppressed congregations in the Soviet orbit that fare worse than Christians in Poland. In one remarkable sermon, the Pope wondered aloud about God's purposes in the election of an East European as the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years. He called himself history's "first Slav Pope," whose succession to the Apostle Peter forms a bond of blood not only with Poles but with other Slavic peoples, including Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Ukrainians and, most dramatically, Russians ?some 220 million Slavs...
...Paul said at a Mass for priests: "In Rome they say the best things the Pope says are not in his prepared texts. You are enjoying yourselves now, but I will have a row later on for being late for my next appointment." The fact that the Pope's Italian staff objected to his ad-libbing and fretted about his getting behind schedule became a standing joke between the Pope and the Polish crowds...
...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...
...John Paul was elected to size up the new Polish Pope. John Paul may prove a hard bargainer, much more likely than Paul VI to demand quid pro quo for Vatican good will and to hold the Communist world to its word thereafter. Gromyko was recently quoted in the Italian press as fearing that the Pope's visit would have "the same effect on the masses as the Ayatullah Khomeini had in Iran...