Word: pontiff
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...soil to begin his long-awaited eleven-day, 17,000-mile pastoral journey.* Said John Paul on his arrival: "I come as a pilgrim, a pilgrim in the cause of justice and peace and human solidarity, striving to build up the one human family." But the Polish-born Pontiff had also come to listen, and to respond carefully to the divergent voices of the American religious melting pot -- Catholic and non-Catholic alike -- that were raised as he arrived...
Only two men know exactly what words were exchanged at the Pontiff's next stop, the palatial Renaissance-style villa Vizcaya, former home of Industrialist James Deering. Security remained tight both inside and outside the residence. Before the talks, frogmen made an underwater search of fetid Biscayne Bay. John Paul and President Reagan met inside the dwelling without even a translator for nearly an hour, then strolled through the villa's formal gardens. Reagan later told waiting journalists that the two had shared views on the "progress of genuine peace in Central America," on arms control and on the issue...
John Paul referred to Jews as "fellow believers" and spoke of the Holocaust as a "ruthless and inhuman" effort to exterminate specifically European Jews. "Never again!" the Pontiff declared, repeating a common Jewish phrase referring to the Nazi era. He also endorsed Catholic-Jewish programs to educate youngsters about the Nazi atrocities. Said Rabbi James Rudin, interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee: "The healing is under...
Those developments set the stage for Castel Gandolfo, where the nine Jewish representatives began by reciting Psalm 113 in Hebrew, after which John Paul and Willebrands prayed in Latin; everyone joined in a final "Alleluia." The Pope then listened to criticism of his Waldheim meeting without responding. The Pontiff expressed awareness that "the existence of Israel is central" to Jews, said a joint communique, and he "affirmed the importance of the proposed document on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism...
...talks had some light moments. Rabbi Alexander Schindler, leader of Reform Judaism in the U.S., told the Pontiff that in 1979 he had lifted a child above the crowd when John Paul visited New York City, saying, "Remember for the rest of your life that it was a rabbi who helped you see the Pope." But for all the warmth, what some were already calling the historic "Castel Gandolfo meeting" has not healed all the old wounds. To ensure that this visit will be remembered past his lifetime, the Pope who saw the rabbis has merely begun what promises...