Word: pauls
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Rome Bureau Chief Wilton Wynn, who traveled with Pope John Paul II through Poland for this week's cover story, is no stranger to papal tours. He flew twice with Pope Paul VI and had a chat with John Paul II on the new Pontiffs trip to Mexico last January. Wynn reports great differences between the two as air passengers. "Pope Paul established the habit of visiting the press section during each flight," recalls Wynn. "But he was reserved and a bit shy. He would shake each newsman's hand, murmur a greeting, and then return...
Even Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko has been concerned. He made an early visit to the Vatican after 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...
...Communists were so nervous about the politics of an impending visit that they ham-handedly censored John Paul's first message to his former diocese in Cracow because he praised St. Stanislaw, an 11th century bishop of that city, by describing him as a martyr who "did not hesitate to confront the ruler when defense of the moral order called for it." The Polish government also balked at the Pope's expressed interest in returning home during last month's 900th anniversary celebration of the martyrdom...
Says Religious Minister Kakol of the current visit: "The Vatican assured us that there will be no controversial state ments made." But with millions of Poles, along with other East bloc Catholics, turning out to see John Paul, a certain political nervousness is understandable. The deep feeling that the accession of Wojtyla to the papacy stirred in East European Catholics can hardly be overestimated. "In future," as the underground Chronicle of the beleaguered Lithuanian Catholic Church put it, "we shall not feel abandoned to the will of the atheists in the Kremlin...
...knows what will eventually come of John Paul's homecoming. Says Tadeusz Mazowiecki, editor of the Catholic monthly Wiez (The Link) and a founder of the flying university movement: "The Pope's visit will inject new energy into society. The masses will feel stronger; they will understand that they should demand more. These nine days will be a religious event, of course, but they will also shape the consciousness of the people." In other words, though the trip's intent is spiritual, its effects may be temporal as well...