Word: pontiff
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Popes by doctrine are blessed with papal infallibility, but John Paul II appears to be the first who also possesses papal infantability. Certainly no predecessor within memory ever demonstrated the talent for baby kissing that the new Pontiff has displayed. During Vatican audiences and on his travels to Mexico and his native Poland, the sequence has been the same: John Paul reaches into the throng, expertly hefts a baby, and with arms burly from swimming and skiing, hoists the child overhead before bestowing a papal buss. Vatican aides are discomfited by the innovation, which slows processions and complicates protocol...
...often to go quickly to meet with work-worn peasants, a thousand journalists struggled to follow. Wherever he went, the people had walked and driven for miles, and then stood for hours, shoulder to shoulder, some even dropping in exhaustion, merely to glimpse the man. Most unpontifically, the Roman Pontiff plunged among them, raising children high in the air, throwing a hammerlock on old acquaintances, hugging and blessing the pilgrims...
...that he would bless any crosses that the young congregation had brought. Suddenly thousands of crucifixes of all shapes and sizes were thrust out of the crowd and waved aloft. Said the Pontiff: "I hope you will be faithful to this sign always...
...Pope spent three days in the shrine city, Czestochowa, where he led the ceremony of consecration to the Virgin. Inside the fortress-like Jasna Gora (Bright Mountain) monastery is the Black Madonna painting, attributed by legend to St. Luke. "There are people and nations. Mother," the Pontiff prayed, "that I would like to say to you by name. I entrust them to you in silence. I entrust them to you in the way that you know best." Poles believe that prayer to her image by the Jasna Gora monks staved off invading Swedish armies in 1655. Since 1656 Mary...
When the Pope spoke on Friday, his voice was noticeably hoarse. The occasion was a helicopter trip to Nowy Targ, home of the gorale (mountain people). The Pontiff pointed out that he was a goral himself, as was one of the prelates who accompanied him: Polish-American John Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia. The Pope, when an archbishop, enjoyed visiting friends and skiing in the area and the turnout surpassed