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.

January 27, 1999

      ST. LOUIS (CWNews.com) - Invigorated by a special meeting with 20,000 youth in St. Louis' Kiel Arena, Pope John Paul II showed his famous sense of humor and unmatched connection with young people.

      The Holy Father spoke with the young people about training themselves in devotion to the Lord, comparing that to the training required in sports. He also referred to the home run fever that gripped St. Louis last summer during the record race between St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa. McGwire was on hand to greet the Pontiff, kneeling and kissing the Pope's ring as he entered the arena.

      Following the rally, the youth presented the Holy Father with a jersey of the St. Louis Blues hockey team emblazoned with the name "John Paul II" and the number one. He replied by joking that he may come back to play hockey. Then to the delight of the gathered teens, he turned his cane upside down and swung it the side as if to strike a hockey puck.

      ST. LOUIS (CWNews.com) -- A smiling Pope John Paul II sprinkled his talk with jokes when he met with young Americans from St. Louis on Tuesday evening, but he also delivered a serious warning against violence, drug use, extra-marital sex, and suicide. The Holy Father urged the youngsters to deepen their prayer life.

      With camera flashbulbs popping all around him, in a sports facility ordinarily used for ice hockey, the Pope spent well over an hour with the young people, who responded to his message with a repeated chant: "John Paul II, we love you!"

      "Train yourselves in prayer the way you train in football," the Pope advised his audience. He then prompted a round of laughter by asking impishly, why Americans use the term "soccer" rather than "football" for the international sport. But he quickly returned to a sober tone, exhorting the young people to attend Mass every Sunday, at least. Only in prayer, he told them, would they find the deepest meaning of life.

      The Holy Father then went on to caution the young people against the temptations popularized by the "culture of death." He warned them that they should not listen to the voices that insist chastity is outdated, or accept the new laws which allow doctors to assist in suicide. Instead, he challenged the young people to open their hearts to those who are in need, or who face despair, and become witnesses to the light and truth of the Gospel.

      At the end of the meeting, the Pope drew another round of appreciative laughter and applause from the audience, after a young American presented him with a hockey stick as a gift. "Now I am equipped to play hockey," he chuckled, in a self-deprecating reference to his own frailty; "but am I really in shape for it-- that's the question!"

      ST. LOUIS (CWNews.com) -- Arriving in St. Louis on Tuesday, January 26, Pope John Paul II wasted no time in calling upon US citizens to realize "the enormous impact which America has on the rest of the world," and urging action to combat "the culture of death" which is gaining strength in American society.

      Apparently in a playful mood when he reached St. Louis, the Holy Father threw organizers into a panic when he pretended to begin descending the steps of his airplane on foot-- toward the ground, where no one was waiting for him-- rather than waiting for a moveable elevator which would take him directly to the hangar, where President Bill Clinton led an official greeting party.

      The Pope's welcome in St. Louis was markedly less enthusiastic than the send-off he had received in Mexico, where thousands of people bid him a noisy farewell, some even trying to climb onto the wings of his plane for a closer glimpse.

      In his first public remarks, the Pope said that the United States is now facing a moral crisis, similar in scope to the crisis that followed the Dred Scott decision in 1856. (In the Dred Scott decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that slaves had no rights which their owners are bound to respect, just as in the 1973 Roe v Wade decision the Court found that unborn children have no rights which their mothers cannot override.) Making his message unmistakably clear, the Pope explained that today's victims are not black slaves but the unborn, the terminally ill, and the handicapped. All, he said, are now at risk because they are not protected by the rule of law.

      To combat the "culture of death," John Paul said, Americans need "a higher moral vision." He urged his American listeners to reaffirm their belief in the integrity of family life, and the essential dignity of all human life.

      After the official exchange of greetings, the Pope met privately with President Clinton for about 20 minutes. Diplomatic sources indicated that the conversation did not focus on the well-known disagreements between the Holy See and the US government, on issues such as abortion, the bombing of Iraq, and the death penalty. Nor did the Pope discuss Clinton's ongoing impeachment trial.

For more articles previous to this,


see PAPAL VISIT TO THE AMERICAS - January 26 and

see PAPAL VISIT TO THE AMERICAS - January 25 and

see PAPAL VISIT TO THE AMERICAS - January 24 and

see PAPAL VISIT TO THE AMERICAS - January 23