Pope set to make dramatic plea in U.N. for justice

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 9

Pope set to make dramatic plea in U.N. for justice

NZPA-Reuter

Boston

Alter a triumphant but rain-drenched start to his American tour. Pope John Paul II will today throw the weight of the Roman Catholic Church behind a call for justice, peace, and human rights at the United Nations in New York.

“I shall have the honour 1 to go to this supreme forum of nations ... to make ai plea to the whole world fori justice and peace, a plea in} defence of the unique dig-|i niiy of every human being,” i he told a soaked but enthusiastic congregation of 500.000 on Boston Common. The Pope gave no details ; of what he would say, but he was expected to offer the services of the Vatican as a n ediator in international d sputes. An original invitation from the United Nations Secretary-General (Dr Kurt Waldheim) to address the General Assembly triggered off the Pope’s six-city, seven-day tour that will take I him to a meeting with President Jimmy Carter in Wash-} ington on Saturday. The Pope who was greeted' at Boston Airport by President Carter’s wife. Rosalynn.l after arriving from a tu-| multuous tour of Ireland, was i seen by an estimated twomillion people in six hours■ of public appearances in I Boston. At an open-air Mass on | Boston Common the Pope addressed American youth' on the perils of materialism, I

I "Faced with problems andt 'disappointments, many] ■ people will try Ito escape from their } responsibility,” he told the I excited throng on the common. “They will escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference, and cynical attitudes,” he added. “But today I propose to yo ’ the option of love, which is the opposite of escape. If you really accept that love from Christ it will lead you to God.” The Pope told the crowd I that the main purpose of his } visit to the United States! I was to convince Americans} Ito return to Christ. I The audience gave him a! ‘rousing cheer when he 'hailed the United States for! ; accepting thousands of refu-} 'gees over many decades, and |for its aid to other countries. } Schools and offices were ! closed, and Boston television 1 stations, like the State teleI vision in Ireland, gave nonistop coverage to every public appearance of the Pope. |He appeared relaxed despite I the day’s gruelling schedule,

twhich had begun in Ireland land lasted more than 16} hours. A vast security operation I was in force for the Pope’s brief visit, but it appeared I to be largely confined to ■ crowd control along the 30km motorcade route from , the airport to Boston Com- , i mon. About 1000 blacks pro- j tested against racism in Bos- ( ■ ton during the visit, and the , Secret Service guard protect- ( ing the Pope had to change : his route at one street be- ( cause demonstrators were blocking it. j } Th police reported about} 150 arrests for various of- ■ I fences including peddling ■ } without a licence, drunklenness. possession of drugs, dand pickpocketing. ■I After his address at the ■'United Nations, the Pope ■[plans to visit a Roman CathI olic church in New York's ■ black ghetto district of Harlem, and to bless a derelict i site in the city’s most devasi tated area, the South Bronx, ■ where a housing project is ■ planned. He will later celebrate . Mass for some 70.000 people ; at. the Yankee Baseball Sta- , dium.