260,000 roar approval of papal speech

Press, 3 June 1982, Page 9

260,000 roar approval of papal speech

NZPA-Reuter Glasgow’ Pope John Paul today ends an historic visit to Britain, during which he has met British Protestant leaders, called for prayers for peace in the Falklands, and won the hearts of manv Britons.

The last engagements of his six-day visit, the first to Britain by a reigning Pope, are in South Wales, where he will attend a big open-air Mass and a youth rally.

His two-day stay in Scotland saw an explosion of joyful enthusiasm when young Roman Catholics at a rugby football stadium outside Edinburgh applauded every phrase of his speech. In Glasgow yesterday, a crowd of about 260,000 roared in adulation as the 62-year-old Polish Pope celebrated Mass.

The Pope also had a friendly meeting with the Right Reverend Professor John Mclntyre. Moderator (leader) of the Church of Scotland. This Presbyterian Church, born out of the six-teenth-century reformist rebellion against the papacy, has a history of fierce opposition to Roman Catholicism. Threatened trouble from hard-line Protestants opposed to the Visit hardly materialised. Two demonstrations led by the Northern Ireland preacher-politician. lan Paisley, each attracted only about" 200 supporters. The highlight of the Pope’s tour of England was an emo-’ tion-charged meeting with the leader of the world's 67 million Anglicans, Archbishop Robert Runcie, in Canterbury.

In Glasgow, in an impassioned call for Christian unity, he said all Christians were pilgrims making their way towards the heavenly kingdom. "Can we not make that pilgrimage together hand-in-hand?” he asked.

But as he spoke, the Falklands conflict, which nearly prevented him coming to Britain, cast fresh' shadows on his visit.

The British Ministry of Defence announced that some 250 Argentinians had been killed when British troops captured the Falklands settlements of Goose Green and Darwin last Thursday.

Roman Catholic sources said the news was certain to upset the Pope, who has drawn warm applause from crowds throughout his visit with repeated calls for an end to the fighting. The Pope is due to take the same message to Argentina later this month. He will celebrate two masses during his visit to Argentina'on June Hr 12, but it is still undecided whether he will meet President Leopoldo Galtieri alone, the Papal Nuncio’s office in Buenos Aires has said. It will be the first-ever papal visit to Argentina. A church spokesman, Monsignor Agustin, said it was yet to be determined whether the Pope would meet General Galtieri in Government House or would talk with the general and his two colleagues in the threeman junta that runs Argentina in the Congress building.