JOHN PAUL II RETURNS TO THE AMERICAS IN WHAT IS POSSIBLY HIS FAREWELL TOUR TO THE NEW WORLD

EDITOR'S NOTE: We will be updating this page several times a day during the week. The following news articles are provided by CWN - Catholic World News and Noticias Eclesias CHURCH NEWS. For live up-to-date coverage of the papal trip to Mexico and the United States, visit EWTN. Continuous Spanish- language coverage is also available at Spanish Coverage.

      Pope John Paul II is visiting Mexico and the United States this week. The 78-year-old pontiff arrived in Mexico City January 22 for a five-day trip and will travel to St. Louis on Tuesday. It is the Holy Father's fourth visit to Mexico, his seventh to the United States, and his 85th tour outside Italy.

      Bishops from North and South America invited John Paul to talk about economic justice, immigration, and evangelism. A major issue is the declining influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America and ways to counteract inroads made by evangelical groups.

      President Clinton will meet with the Pope in a hangar at the Lambert-St. Louis Airport in what we dub, "Showdown in St. Louis." Though many do not think John Paul is likely to raise issues of impeachment or adultery, he will definitely address America's policies on Iraq and Cuba, according to Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit paper America. The Pope has criticized the economic embargo against Cuba and military strikes against Iraq. About 95,000 people are expected to attend a Mass at the Trans World Dome Jan. 27.

January 23, 1999

      MEXICO CITY, 23 (NE) Over one million people will attend the Eucharistic celebration that the Holy Father will preside this Sunday in Mexico. The entrance to the autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will be open from the previous day at six in the afternoon, for there are many willing to spend the night there in order to get good places the following day. Also, it is estimated that there will be about 2.300 trucks that will arrive between Saturday and Sunday with pilgrims coming from different places of the country.

      The State government and the law enforcing agencies of the city, together with numerous civil organizations, have organized a special operation that includes numerous security measures, such as the establishment of two contention areas, the closing of diverse arteries, the installation of phones, of stations for locating people, Red Cross facilities, and even the presence of epidemic brigades.

      The Holy Father will arrive to the circuit on Sunday at 9:00am in the morning on a helicopter. Upon descending, he will go through the circuit in the Popemobile and at 10:30 will ascend through the elevator to the atrium from which he will preside the Holy Mass.

      MEXICO CITY, 22 (N3) With immense happiness and accompanied with the singing of "mariachis" and the applause of the Mexican people, Pope John Paul II was welcomed yesterday at the Benito Juarez International Airport of Mexico City. After greeting President Ernesto Zedillo and the First Lady, the Holy Father went towards the presidential hangar in order to begin the welcoming ceremony of his apostolic pilgrimage. There, President Zedillo expressed to the Pope that the Mexican people rejoiced and felt honored with his presence.

      The Holy Father made his address expressing the "great joy to find myself, once again, in this blessed land, where our Holy Mary of Guadalupe is worshiped as a lovely Mother. I come as a Jesus Christ's Apostol and as Saint Peter's successor to remark the faith of my brothers and sisters. I come to pray, and to announce the Word of God to all men and women. In this ocassion, this city will be the place of a holy and historical meeting: I will join to the bishops of all the American Continent for presenting tomorrow, at the Basilica de Guadalupe, the fruits of the Synod that began 1 year ago at Rome."

      "The Bishops of America marked the principal points of the future pastoral action that, form the faith we share, and the desire of an answer to the Godīs Salvation Plan and the dignity of the human beings in the context of societies who can share justice, reconciliation and openness in the technical process that needs a moral progress."

      The Holy Father also mentioned the fidelity of Mexican people, saying: "ever since the Mexican people welcomed me 20 years ago with open arms and full of hope, they have accompanied me along many of my journeys. I can still hear the sound of their greetings in my ears: Mexico, always loyal, always faithful, always present!"

      Afterwards the Pope made a significant description of Mexican identity, saying it was a nation of deep Catholic roots, "a country where the catholic faith served usefully in the blending of the old ethnical and antagonistic plurality into a unity of brotherhood and destiny." This foundation is so important that "it is not possible to comprehend Mexico without the faith that the first 12 Franciscans brought from Spain and that was strengthened by Dominicans, Jesuits, Augustinians and other preachers of Christ's word of salvation."

      Also in his speech, the Successor of Peter pointed out: "I come to you, Mexicans of different social classes and conditions, and to you brothers of this American Continent, in order to greet you in the name of Christ. Together with my brother bishops of Mexico and of all over America I come to kneel before the mantle of the Blessed Juan Diego." And precisely while facing the Virgin of Tepeyac the Supreme Pontiff requested "at the end of a fertile and tormented millennium, that the next millennium, in Mexico, in America and in the whole world, may secure roads of fraternity and peace be opened, that in Jesus Christ may find secure bases and spacious roads for progress."

      Finally the Holy Father concluded his first speech in Mexican lands trusting to the maternal cares of Holy Mary of Guadalupe, "the destiny of this nation and of the whole Continent."