October 1995

by Peter Feuerherd

"Be not afraid!" was the message of hope delivered by Pope John Paul II as he visited a troubled America in October.

His four-day visit to the New York city area, which was followed by a one-day trip to Baltimore, capped what was a grueling week for New Yorkers and the rest of the nation. The papal message notwithstanding, there was reason to be afraid.

The terrorists who had bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 had been convicted just the week before. Security at all the papal stops was extremely tight, sometimes trying the patience of media personnel and worshipers. The Knights of Columbus were prohibited from bringing their trademark swords into the Mass they cosponsored at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.

As in all papal trips, speculation abounded about the political consequences of the pontiff's remarks. In his last trip to the States (Denver in 1993 for World Youth Day), the pope's affirmation of support for the life of the unborn was widely interpreted as a knock on President [Bill] Clinton's pro-choice abortion stance.

On this trip, it appeared that Congressional Republicans were taking their hits. In what was perceived as an attack on Republican efforts in Congress to curtail immigration, the pope emphasized America's destiny as "a haven for generation after generation of new arrivals."

Delivering a Message to the International Community

But of course the pope's visit transcended partisan politics. After a stop for a prayer service at Newark’s Sacred Heart Cathedral located in the midst of a city battered by violence and poverty, the pope spent the morning of the first full day of his American tour across the Hudson River at the United Nations in New York. It was a speech which fulfilled the major purpose of his visit—to deliver a message to the international community much as Pope Paul VI did in 1965, and he himself did on his first U.S. visit in 1979.

There, after hearing a children's choir, composed of the sons and daughters of United Nations officials, serenade him with "Let There Be Peace on Earth," the pope urged the international body—under attack in U.S. politics in recent years—to become a true "family of nations."

October 1995

The Pope in Baltimore: ‘God Coming Close to Us’

by Christopher Gaul

In the day of faith-filled joy, exuberance and tears that was Pope John Paul II's 10-hour visit to Baltimore October 8, there were some more intimate, quiet moments that seemed to touch the pilgrim from Rome and which inspired those who participated in these special events.

Clearly tired and, as it turned out, hungry after a long morning in which he had celebrated Mass in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the pope stopped off at Our Daily Bread (ODB) to join 17 invited guests for a typical daily lunch. Our Daily Bread is the downtown soup kitchen run by Catholic Charities. With the exception of one man, the guests were not regular ODB clients but representative families who had benefited from Catholic Charities' many programs.

The presence of the "man who came to dinner" didn't mean, though, that the 600 to 800 people the soup kitchen feeds each day went hungry. The regular operation was shifted to St. Alphonsus Church three blocks away.

Introduced to the guests by Cardinal William H. Keeler, Baltimore's archbishop, the pope gently took the faces of their children in his hands as he leaned down to kiss them. When he came to four-year-old Ivan Damian, the son of Ramon and Alejandra Damian of Baltimore, the pope playfully tapped his nose. Seated at the center of a 2-foot-long table set with a burgundy tablecloth and encircled by his newfound friends, the pope enjoyed the scheduled Sunday luncheon of creamed chicken casserole, peas and carrots, dinner rolls, sliced tomatoes on lettuce, iced tea, cookies and ice cream. And he ate everything he was served by the volunteers who have worked at Our Daily Bread for years, some of them since its inception in 1981.

Ramon Damian, an immigrant from Mexico, was awed by the experience of sharing a meal with the pontiff. It was, he said, "like something from God coming close to us."