Newspaper Page Text
W
!
Diocese of
Savannah
Vol. 79, No. 3
Thursday, January 21,1999
hern
Cross
Contents
News 2-3
Commentary 4-5
Around the Diocese ... 6-7
Faith Alive! 8-9
Notices 10-11
Last But Not Least .... 12
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Ambassador Boggs: “Pope’s visit will have special meaning
for U.S. youth”
US. Ambassador to Holy See has
"Let the little children come to me*
An' unidentified child holding a baby bottle approaches Pope John Paul il as
he leaves the Sistine Chapel January 10. The pope had just ended a Bap
tism ceremony for 19 infants. The Holy Father will make one stop in the
United States, at Saint Louis, January 26, on his way back to Rome from
Mexico.
high hopes for papal visit
to Saint Louis
By Bob Thavis
Rome (CNS)
W hen Pope John Paul II visits Saint Louis in late January, he'll
bring a significant message to America's heartland and espe
cially the young people of the region, said U.S. Ambassador to the
Vatican Lindy Boggs.
The ambassador, who will be in Saint Louis January 26 when
President Bill Clinton welcomes the pope, said papal visits always
have a “tremendous impact” in the United States, not only in reli
gious circles but throughout the culture. “His most significant con
tribution is always with the young people, and I’m certain it will
be the same in Saint Louis,” Boggs said in an interview in Rome
January 14. The pontiff is scheduled to meet with youths in the
Kiel Center the evening of his arrival,
Boggs has seen the pope interact with huge crowds of young
people before; she said she still gets goose bumps recalling his
rally with 75,000 youths in the New Orleans Superdome in 1987.
In Alaska, where the pope stopped briefly in 1984, she watched as
he drove a dogsled full of delighted children to his departure plane.
That event left her with a lasting image, she said. “I think his
greatest contribution to the world is that he is going to lead, with
‘tough love,’ the young people of this generation into the next mil
lennium,” she said. By “tough love,” she explained, she means the
pope’s approach to young people is demanding, not “cherubic,”
but they seem to respect that.
The 78-year-old pope has increasingly shown signs of age and a
neurological disease, with a slower walk and less distinct speech.
But Boggs, 82, said she has no apprehensions about the pope’s
health and his ability to communicate with people. “Just today, I
was in an audience where he was speaking to a group of theolo
gians, to great intellectuals and scientists, and was giving a very
remarkable speech,” she said.
“What I thought about was: Look at him! He’s reading four
pages of small print without any glasses on,” she said with a laugh.
She noted that he had celebrated a three-hour-long Mass a few
days earlier with no apparent difficulty. “I think he does remark
ably well.... I admire him so tremendously for being able to exhib
it as much vigor as he does,” she said.
Boggs, who represented Louisiana for many years in the House
of Representatives, said the papal visit would highlight the
church’s history in the U.S. geographical center. Many of the early
settlers and missionaries went up the Mississippi River from
Louisiana, founding towns and building churches.
She noted that the oldest parish church in that part of the country
lies just across the river from Saint Louis and is celebrating its
300th anniversary this year. The Church of the Holy Family in
Cahokia, Illinois, founded as a mission in 1699, claims to be with
in the bounds of the oldest continuing Catholic parish in the Unit
ed States, she said.
Bishop J. Kevin Boland will represent the Diocese of Savannah
in Saint Louis.