Pope John Paul II comes to Toronto to celebrate the Catholic faith with young people from all around the world.

Pope's seemingly small gestures work wonders for youths in Toronto

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

TORONTO (CNS) -- As Pope John Paul II grows older and frailer, he's found that seemingly small gestures can work wonders.

Arriving for World Youth Day celebrations in Toronto July 23, he did something that left thousands of young people in awe: He walked down 27 steps from his airplane to the tarmac.

Then he wowed them even more by reading a short speech in English and French -- all 480 words -- in a voice that quavered a bit but could be understood.

"Amazing," was the most common reaction from the young people in attendance.

It's a measure of the pope's physical decline that his stamina is gauged today in each step taken and every word pronounced.

The young people at World Youth Day had been warned to expect a very fragile figure when the 82-year-old pontiff arrived. He would be lowered from his plane on a hidden lift and might have to let an assistant read his speech, they were told.

But the pope had other ideas. When the plane landed, he told apprehensive aides that he'd take the stairs instead -- so the young people could see him.

The pope they saw standing at the airplane door was no Superman. His mouth hung open, marked by the creeping facial paralysis believed caused by Parkinson's disease. His arm was held in a tight grip by a burly secretary, and his rigid gait made each downward step a trial.

When he finally reached the ground, a crowd of about 600 well-wishers let out a spontaneous cheer, partly in admiration and partly in relief.

With his chin hunched to his chest, the pope struggled to simply gaze out upon the crowd. Even that was appreciated.

"I admired his effort to look at us, to lift up his head," Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto said afterward.

When the speeches were over, the pope motioned to organizers to bring some of the young people up to meet him. Some had serious illnesses, and the last in line was a boy with a form of palsy. The pope greeted him and, his own mouth contorted to one side, watched for a long time as they led the boy away.

The pope was supposed to depart immediately for several days of rest at a church-run island retreat north of Toronto. But, once in his helicopter, he had second thoughts about leaving the young people behind so quickly, so the chopper made a detour and took an aerial swing over the World Youth Day sites -- one more thrill for the kids below.

Once the pope arrived on Strawberry Island, 40 acres full of woods and berry bushes in Ontario's Lake Simcoe, his hosts figured he would be ready for a rest. Instead, he made use of the golf cart put at his disposal to take a tour of the island, stopping to pray at a shrine. Then he sat on his lakeside porch and read.

The idea was to give the pope a mini-vacation before the demanding appearances at World Youth Day later in the week. But the pope insisted on bringing a group of 14 youths to lunch with him on the island before then -- he didn't want them to think he'd forgotten them, said his spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

On July 24, the pope took a two-hour ride on a motor launch around Lake Simcoe, followed at a discreet distance by security boats. When he passed near a center for handicapped children, about 20 of the youths timidly approached the pope's launch in paddle boats.

When the pope motioned them to come closer, they gathered round in the water and received a papal blessing and rosaries.

Strawberry Island is known for its mosquitoes, but a donation allowed the place to be sprayed before the pope's arrival. Organizers guaranteed no mosquitoes were left.

For a man who was once an avid swimmer, canoeist and hiker, Strawberry Island no doubt evoked some memories of younger days. But at this stage of his life, the pope was using the spot more for meditation. He spent an hour and a half praying in his private chapel before saying Mass on his first full day there.

Despite recent talk of papal resignation, no one in the papal party was acting like this was a "lame-duck" pope on one of his last journeys. His spokesman, Navarro-Valls, said on the papal plane that, in addition to visiting his native Poland in August, the pope was considering trips to Manila in January and Croatia next spring.

"There has been an official invitation to Manila, and no one has said no. It's an open question," Navarro-Valls said.

Asked about the physical toll a flight to the Far East would take on the pope, Navarro-Valls said there were no special concerns among papal doctors.

"In total mileage, this trip is longer," he said, noting that the pope would travel from Toronto to Guatemala and Mexico before returning to Rome Aug. 2.

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Copyright (c) 2002 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Used with permission.