Word: papal
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...blessed the same day that Karol Wojtyla was born in Wadowice, Poland, in 1920. How appropriate then for John Paul II to visit the church to celebrate Mass and enjoy a joint birthday cake. What a cake: 132 Ibs. of sponge soaked in Grand Marnier, cream filling, icing in papal yellow and white, marzipan coats of arms, and all topped by a milk chocolate model of Christ the King. Blowing out the single candle, John Paul ordered the cake distributed to orphans. He sipped boiling-hot tea and listened delightedly to an Italian choir boom out a traditional Polish birthday...
...happened 1,250 miles upriver from the sea, at Kisangani, a Zairean city surrounded by one of the world's densest jungles. As the papal plane touched down, a band of horns, drums and a guitar beat out religious tunes. Two lines of teen-age girls in green swayed, sang and clapped their hands joyously. Swept up by the infectious rhythms, everyone, including the press, began to dance, even the veteran diplomatic correspondent of Italy's staid Corriere della Sera. When John Paul reached the green lines, he suddenly began to dance too, his big frame swaying back...
...When the papal tour moved on to Kenya, the congregation in Nairobi's Uhuru (Freedom) Park numbered 600,000. The blind and crippled mingled in the throng in the hope of receiving a papal blessing, but it was difficult for multitudes in neighboring Tanzania and Uganda to attend. Tanzania has sealed its border with Kenya. Both Tanzania and Uganda refused to release exchange currency for those who wished to travel, though Uganda's President Godfrey Bi-naisa arrived anyway. Some got in without money. A Tanzanian woman from Moshi made it across the border by walking at night...
...Pope spoke repeatedly about Christianity's social role in Africa. In a week when two U.S. priests had to drop races for Congress because John Paul has reasserted the canon forbidding the clergy to take direct part in electoral politics, the papal point seemed contradictory. But John Paul's policy applies to priests, not laymen. He wants to leave social action basically to the laity, while bishops and priests speak out in principle for human and religious rights and against corruption and violence. "The against corruption and violence. "The Christian faith does not provide you with readymade solutions...
...People's Republic of the Congo. In 1977, Emile Biayenda became the second Cardinal in the century to be assassinated. But last month the nominally Marxist government of President Denis Sassou Nguesso established diplomatic relations with the Vatican and pleaded urgently to be included in the papal visit. The Congo needs to court Catholicism to shore up its popular support and counteract the influence of revolutionary religious sects that seek to overthrow the government. John Paul used his visit to remind Congolese officials that religious freedom is "at the center of respect for all the inalienable rights...