P.M. hopeful of meeting Pope

Press, 3 June 1981, Page 2

P.M. hopeful of meeting Pope

PA Wellington The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) still hoped to meet . Pope John Paul II in Rome this month, said a spokesman for Mr Muldoon yesterday. Mr Muldoon is scheduled for an audience with the Pope on June 15, but the meeting will depend on whether the Pope has sufficiently recovered from the injuries he suffered in last month’s assassination attempt. The spokesman said the meeting had not yet been cancelled. Details of Mr Muldoon’s visit to Australia and Europe were announced yesterday. He will leave for Tasmania on June 10 and return to New Zealand on June 28. After visiting;. Tasmania, where he will give the keynote address to the national conference of the Australian

Chambers of Commerce, Mr Muldoon will travel to Italy, France, Britain, and West Germany. Mr Muldoon said that he expected to hold official discussions in Rome and to visit Trieste. In Paris he will represent New Zealand at the annual Ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (0.E.C.D.). Mr Muldoon said that in London he would hold discussions with members of the British Government, notably the Prime Minister (Mrs Thatcher), and those of her Ministers who had been close to New Zealand’s trading concerns with the E.E.C. In West Germany Mr Muldoon will meet Chancellor Schmidt and other members of his Government in Bonn, and visit West Berlin: