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VATICAN LETTER Jul-2-2004 (830 words) Backgrounder. xxxi
Summer days: No signs of slowdown as pope prepares for vacation
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II may have been packing his bags for a summer vacation, but events at the Vatican showed no sign of winding down in late June and early July.
From ecumenical encounters to liturgical celebrations, from political pronouncements to pastoral messages, the Vatican was bubbling over with activity.
Passing through the Vatican's doors were groups of U.S. bishops, Jewish leaders, the Spanish prime minister, a Spanish royal couple, the Maltese president and a long line of others.
The pope welcomed Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to the Vatican, where the two embraced, professed the faith and shared a sermon during a liturgy for the distribution of palliums to new archbishops.
The pope and patriarch met privately on two other occasions during the week, and the patriarch was joined by Vatican officials as he inaugurated a church for Orthodox use in Rome -- a much appreciated gift from the pope.
Meanwhile, the Vatican released a papal letter on sports, a message on globalization, a message on the family and massive documentation from the Vatican's World War II archives. It also issued an unusual public complaint about the arrest of bishops in China.
At the Vatican Observatory, some 13 scientific and theological experts gathered for a major conference on evolution. Creationism didn't even come up; these experts view religion and science as complementary, not rivals, and were looking for a balance between scientific discoveries and metaphysics.
A papal trip to France was announced for mid-August, and the early approval of 78 sainthood causes led to speculation that the pope would travel to Mexico in October to beatify 13 martyrs.
The early installation of the interim Iraqi government brought important Vatican pronouncements and a papal telegram offering the church's help in launching Iraq's "new chapter." At the same time, the church's aid planners met at the Vatican for three days to discuss new projects in Iraq and the Middle East.
The pace of activity was so brisk that the Vatican press office apparently had trouble keeping up. It was almost 24 hours before it made available Patriarch Bartholomew's comments at the papal audience and Mass. A papal meeting with the U.S.-based Bruderhof community was announced July 1 -- five days after it happened.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the pre-vacation rush at the Vatican was how much of the activity was generated by or centered on the 84-year-old pope.
It was the pope who invited Patriarch Bartholomew to Rome, intent on marking the 40th anniversary of the historic embrace between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964.
Likewise, it was the pope who began the tradition of handing out the pallium, a woolen cloth symbolizing the bond with Rome, to new archbishops from around the world. This year, a record 44 archbishops came for the ceremony.
The pope also met with 50 groups and individuals who came to his library for private audiences in the second half of June. He made a point of delivering speeches to groups that were dealing with issues dear to his heart, like Christians in the Middle East and family legislation in Europe.
It was the pope who decided to open ahead of schedule World War II documentation from the Vatican Secret Archives. It was the pope who pushed the causes of Spanish and Mexican martyrs, and who keeps telling aides to keep open the option of a trip to Mexico in October.
Pope John Paul's determination to keep going in the face of physical frailty and neurological disease was evident during his evening Mass in St. Peter's Square June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Seated near Patriarch Bartholomew on his mobile throne, his face nearly contorted by the effort of speaking, the pope labored to pronounce the words of his sermon -- and succeeded. His voice sounded as good as it has in months.
The next day he was out in the square again, speaking in eight languages during a general audience that left most pilgrims wilted in the heat.
The pope was to head for a two-week stay in northern Italy's Aosta Valley on July 5. No public activities are planned, and no stream of visitors will be coming through the door of his wood-and-stone chalet. He can see Mont Blanc out his bedroom window, and he'll probably take drives to some of the most scenic mountain vistas in Europe.
Then the pope returns to his summer villa at Castel Gandolfo until the end of September. In Castel Gandolfo, aides try to keep his audiences to a minimum, but it's not unusual for the pope to meet with three or four sets of people in a single morning.
Last year he also found time to write a book, a recently published memoir on his years as a bishop. Until it was announced this spring, people had no idea that's how the pope spent his last summer vacation.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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