Italy: Ailing Pope John Paul II received a typically warm, southern Italian welcome when he visited the Marian Sanctuary of Pompeii, near Naples, yesterday morning, writes Paddy Agnew in Pompeii.
More than 30,000 people, including pilgrims from Canada, Belgium, France, Poland and the US, crammed into the square in front of the sanctuary, just up the road from the ancient Roman city that was famously buried when Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
Although the Pope's slurred diction was little helped by a wind-distorted public address system, most of those in the square had little difficulty following him as he led prayers and a recital of the rosary on what was his 143rd papal visit within Italy. Reading slowly, the 83-year-old Pope delivered his entire homily himself, unlike on several recent occasions when he has delegated the reading of his speeches to Vatican aides.
Throughout his speech, the silences provoked by his not infrequent pauses were punctuated by cries of "Viva Il Papa", whilst he was warmly applauded and cheered throughout the morning. Seemingly invigorated by the warm reception afforded him, the Pope looked and sounded stronger as the morning went on, concluding the two-hour ceremony by personally greeting a host of VIPs from Italian clerical and political life.
In what may have been a reference to his now celebrated and well-documented health problems, the Pope had begun his speech by acknowledging that the Holy Virgin had granted him the possibility of returning to a shrine that he first visited as Pope in 1979. As is now customary, he remained seated all morning, moving from the helicopter which had brought him from Rome to the "popemobile" for a brief drive through the town of Pompeii, before shifting to the hydraulic chair he uses for liturgical ceremonies.
Although the major thrust of his speech was focused on the significance of the rosary prayer, the Pope also made reference to themes contemporary and historical when touching on both Pompeii's ancient Roman past and the issue of world peace, saying: "I wanted my pilgrimage here to have the sense of a heartfelt cry for peace. We have meditated on the mysteries of light, almost as if we wanted to shine the light of Christ on the conflicts, tensions and dramas of the five continents.
"These ruins [of Pompeii] talk to us. They highlight a fundamental question about the destiny of man. They are witness to a great civilisation of which they reveal, along with some glowing answers, also some disturbing questions. The Marian city of Pompeii rises up from the heart of these questions, proposing the Risen Christ as the answer, as the Redeeming Saviour.
"Today, just as at the time of ancient Pompeii, it is vitally necessary to proclaim the Risen Christ to a society that is moving ever further away from Christian values and which is even beginning to lose its historical memory."
The Pope is due to preside over his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square in Rome today.