Pope travelled widely preaching the Gospel

Press, 15 May 1981, Page 5

Pope travelled widely preaching the Gospel

NZPA-Reuter New York Pope John Paul 11. has shrugged off death threats and braved mobs who nearly overwhelmed him with love as he has travelled round the world since becoming the Pontiff in 1978. The Pope has been protected by such diverse forces as an "anti-terrorist force with sub-machine guns in Ireland and the police wielding special tennis rackets in Japan. The Swiss Guard of the Vatican, founded in 1505, acts as the personal guard of the Pope. Its members are recruited from the Catholiccantons of Switzerland. John Paul also frequently has been accompanied by a personal bodyguard, Bishop Paul C. Marcinkus, a 1.90 m, 58-year-old, former football player from Illinois. The bishop also often escorted Pope Paul VI, serving as advance man for his travels. He was credited with saving Paul when he was attacked during a 1970 visit to the Philippines. A Bolivian painter, Benjamin Mendoz Amor, aged 35, lunged at Pope Paul VI with a knife but was tackled before he could harm the Pontiff.

John Paul visited six countries in 1979 alone. His travels have taken him to South America. Asia,- Africa, the United States and Europe. On February 16 this year, a bomb exploded at the National Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan, killing one person

only minutes before Pope John Paul arrived to say Mass. . The dead man was later identified as a follower of the late Pakistani Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The Pope apparently did not learn of the incident until after he reached the stadium. The same Asian tour included visits to the Philippines and Japan. In Manila, a 17-year-old wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “I Love You,” frightened observers by rushing toward the. Pope in the stadium at Santo Tomas University. The youth kissed the Pope’s hand and got a papal embrace in return before he was led away by the police. When John Paul went to Japan, the Mainichi newspaper said ' the police were equipped with special steel tennis rackets to bat away objects that might be thrown at the Pope.

A more traditional security operation was in force when the Pope visited Ireland in 1979. en route to the United States. An elite antiterrorist squad escorted John Paul wherever he went and it was supported by 12,000 troops and policemen.

Later the same year, John Paul visited predominantly Muslim Turkey, ignoring a reported death threat with the words: “It is necessary to go there now ... love is stronger than danger ... I am in the hands of God.” Security was so tight that the Pope was shielded from sight of the public. All the roads he us;ed and places he visited were cordoned off by the police.

Everywhere John Paul has gone there have been crowds, mostly friendly, but potentially dangerous because of their size.

Nearly a year ago. on July 7, .1980, crowds of slumdwellers in Salvador, Brazil, broke through security lines and surged toward the Pope. John Paul, his white cassock spattered with mud, was forced to duck into a bus reserved for the papal party to escape the crush. Two days later, in Fortaleza, Brazil, crowds rushing into a stadium to see the Pope, broke down a gate and trampled at least three women to deathi In May, 1980, seven Wviiien and two children were trampled to death in a crush to get into an open air Mass celebrated by the Pope in Minshasa, Zaire. The size of the crowds in the African nation caused serious problems for Vatican security men travelling with the Pope.