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POPE PAUL
30LY LAND
SUPPLEMENT
VOL. 2 N). 2
HOLY LAND SUPPLEMENT
POPESA YS:
Visit ‘Humble’
Pilgrimage To
Sacred Places
THURSDAY, JANUARY 9. 1964
HALLOWED SHRINES
$5.00 PER YEAR
Historical
Contrasts
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
JERUSALEM, Jordan (NC)~
Pope Paul M made peace and
brotherhood -he keynotes of his
pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The first pontiff to come to
the Holy Land since St. Peter
left it 1,900 years ago, Pope
Paul prayed on his arrival by
jet airliner in the Jordanian
capital of Amman that "all men
of good will...may help one ano
ther in love and justice and at
tain to universal peace in true
brotherhood."
HE TOLD KING Hussein, Jor
dan's Moslem monarch who
welcomed his plane:
"Our visit is a spiritual one,
a humble pilgrimage to sacred
places...At each one of these
venerable shrines we shall pray
for that peace which Jesus left
to His disciples, that peace
which the world cannot give but
which comes from the fulfill
ment of His commandment: to
love one another as He loves
us.”
King Hussein told the Pon
tiff:
"THIS VISIT is an occasion
we will always remember and
treasure. We hope that this holy
pilgrimage to the Holy Land will
be a success in every way and
we hope that we, as members of
the Jordan family, will be able
in a little way, to show our
gratitude to you as a man and
as a great leader in the ser
vice of humanity and the ser
vice of peace."
Prior to leaving Rome, the
Pope had again stressed the
theme of his pilgrimage, tell
ing crowds at the airport that
"in these days, when the sac
red liturgy recalls the Prince
of Peace, we will beg Him to
give the world this precious
gift, and to consolidate it al
ways more firmly among men,
in families and among peo
ples."
THE POPE—the first pon
tiff to travel by plane— left
Rome at 8:55 a.m. on Jan. 4
and arrived In Amman at 1:15
Winds and a low ceiling there
made his landing uncertain un
til the last minute.
A 21-gun salute greeted the
Pope and 15 white pigeons were
released as he descended from
the DC8 Jetliner clad in white
vestments. Thousands were on
hand to welcome him. He was
saluted by massed Jordanian
troops, including a band wear
ing native burnooses with smart
army uniforms.
AFTER THE EXCHANGE of
greetings between the Pope and
the King, the papal motorcade
left the airport for Jerusalem,
driving along one of history's
most famous routes.
The papal party drove through
Amman which had been special
ly decorated with arches of pine
boughs, flags and lights. Many
of the arches, however, had
been knocked down by the high
winds.
AS THE POPE passed through
th e hilly city of Amman, where
newly planted trees marked the
traffic separators, women in
bulky black dresses and Wes
tern-dressed young men crowd
ed the streets. Jordan’s flag of
strips of green, white and black
with an inset of a red triangle
and white star matched the
simple white and gold of the
papal colors. Along the route
blankets, rugs and bedspreads
covered balconies overlooking
the road.
The route followed by the
papal party ran more than 65
miles from the new city of Am
man to Jerusalem, known even
to the Moselm world as the
"holy one."
THE GOOD ROAD twisted
through ochre hills on a cold,
overcast day. Bedouin tents,
camels used as plough horses,
and endless stretches of rock
filled patches of earth lined the
Pope's path. The poverty of the
land, in its people and in its
earth, was clearly evident from
the windows of the papal cara
van.
At one point—the descent to
the below-sea-level Dead Sea—
the flat white of the Biblical
city of Jericho showed against
the mountains of yellow desola
tion.
The road from Amman to Je
rusalem evokes the time which
the pilgrim Pope could appre
ciate. Stone sign posts, like
bookmarks in the Bible, called
attention to the hallowed events
that occured along its path as
the Pope's party drove through
land much unchanged since Bib
lical days. Though villages and
towns along the way boasted
electric light, nevertheless the
solitude, the separateness and
'
' : :
; v
POPE PAUL VI chats with President Zalman Shazar of Israel
during a ceremony which took place (Jan. 5) at Megiddo, where
the Pope was given an official welcome by the Israeli govern
ment.
POPE PAUL VI acknowledges
for his flight to the Holy Land,
undisturbed feeling of life was
enhanced by the sweep of the
horizon. A sign in stone an
nounced with an arrow to the
left "Jericho, most ancient city
in the world."
At the banks of a sluggish
river, another stone sign pro
claimed "Baptism of Jesus,
traditional site." It was the
River Jordan.'
At the Emir Abdullah bridge
across the Jordan, Pope Paul
got out of his car and walked to
the river's bank. He stood there
for a short time and then turn
ed and blessed the crowd of
thousands lining the river on
both banks. As he climbed back
to the road, the crowds moved
closer and police had to order
them to step back. A helicop
ter hovering over the bridge
was reportedly flown by King
Hussein to make sure that all
went well.
The Pope was met at the
bridge by the governor and may
or of Jordanian Jerusalem and
military commanders and re
ligious authorities of the area,
who then escorted him to the
holy city, going by way of Bet
hany.
Once across the Jordan, the
country changed. Suddenly there
were dunes of sand and stones
sculpted by wind and rain, pale
blond in color, with the higher
hills beyond.
The first glimpse of the holy
city the Pope had was that of a
scattering of tawney buildings
topped by minaret and bell tow
er. Then slowly, and always
around the curvey rock-lined
roads, he saw the golden dome
of the Mosque of Omar, sur
rounded by walls built in the
time of King Solomon, while on
the opposite side of the road
there sprang up the modern
Romanesque Church of the
Agony in the Garden.
The Pope’s 30-car cavalcade
entered Jerusalem from the
east and made its way slowly
through cheering, singing
throngs toward the crenelated
battlements surrounding the Old
City.
Arriving before the tiny Da
mascus Gate to the ancient part
of the Holy City a few minutes
before five o’clock, the Pope’s
the cheers of the crowd as he boards a chartered airliner in Rome
car was virtually swallowed up
in a sea of humanity. Thousands
of wildly cheering people broke
frenziedly through police lines,
and there was a total impasse.
It took 20 minutes for police
and members of Jordan’s fam
ed Arab Legion to clear a path
so that Pope Paul could get out
of his automobile and reach the
gate of en ry.
THE JOUYOUSLY teaming
multitude made it impossible
for the Pope to be heard, and
the result was the complete
scrapping of the ceremonies
planned for his entrance into
the Old City.
The Roman Pontiff had plan
ned to say in an address:
"Let us all together implore
the most desired grace of un
ion among all the disciples of
the Gospel. And to all we say:
By your wishes and your pray
ers invoke with us upon this
land, unique in the world, which
God has visited, His graces of
concord and peace. Let us here,
all together, implore the grace
of true profound brotherhood
among all men and all peo
ples."
BUT THE Pope made no ad
dress. Officials of the city of
Jerusalem had to scramble in
side the newly reinforced police
line in order to lead him into
the Old City. The hundred-
pathway of precious car
pets was hastily rolled up and
a group of small girls dressed
in papal gold and white, on hand
to take part in the now-cancel
led ceremonies, disappeared in
the wave of humanity.
Once inside the gate, the Vi
car of Christ was escorted on
foot to the twisting, climbing
streets of the Via Dolorosa,
the sorrowful path on which
Jesus bore His Cross to Cal
vary.
This Way of the Cross too
was bursting with cheering
thousands. Camera crews from
all over the world hung from
every possible ledge and bal
cony above the narrow alleys.
Every elevation was overflow
ing with singing, applauding men
and women. The path Christ trod
to His Death 19 centuries ago
echoed the voice of a famous
Lebanese woman singer, Fey-
rouz, singing the Stabat Mater
in Arabic. The black-garbed
singer was followed in the his
toric procession by the Leba
nese choir, Kallik—90 singers
who were to sing in Aramaic,
the language of Jesus, two days
later when the Pope marked the
Epiphany at Bethlehem.
THE SEEMINGLY endless
procession, bustling and press
ing the Pope onward to Calvary,
also made the walls of the Old
City reverberate with Christ
mas carols and hymns to the
Holy Ghost.
The tiny figure of the Pope
was at times almost swept up
and borne away time and again
up the tortuous streets by the
sea of people from all nations
who had poured through all
four of the remaining gates to
the Old City, The press was
such that the Pope was unable
even to stop at some of the
Stations of the Cross.
But he eventually reached the
most precious site of Christen
dom, the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher, which tradition holds
to be the place where the Lord
was buried and rose from the
dead.
At the entrance to the basi
lica, he heavy wooden doors
were swung back by Abdel Rauf
Busseibeh, a member of the
Arab family which has had here
ditary possession of the keys of
the church since the 14th cen
tury. He and four other mem
bers of his family, who take
weekly turns opening the door at
4 a.m. daily and closing it again
at 6 p.m„ were among the first
to greet the Bishop of Rome at
the entrance. Others there to
welcome the Pontiff were the
superiors of the Franciscan
monastery which adjoins the
basilica.
THE POPE and his fellow
pilgrims—Catholic patriarchs
of five different rites had join
ed the three cardinals and other
members of the pilgrimage at
Amman—then entered the basi
lica. They were preceded by a
crucifer bearing a two-barred
silver patriarchal cross and by
red-garbed acolytes bearing
palm branches. Also at the head
of the procession were eight
heralds who banged their sil
ver-topped staffs of office re
soundingly on the stone floor,
announcing in the ancient Tur-
(CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)
KUMt (NL)— The contrasts
of history' were underlined as
Pope Paul VI left Rome to be
gin his pilgrimage to the places
sanctified by the life of Christ.
On Jan. 4 the Supreme Pon
tiff rode through the crowded
streets filled with cheering-
faithful, preceded by a motor
cycle escort to Rome's Fumi-
cino airport, where he was bid
a devout Godspeed by highest
men of the governments of the
nation and the city. He entered
a jet plane and, accompanied
by a suite of some 30 persons,
flew within a matter of hours
to Palestine.
IT WAS THE FIRST time
that a pope had gone to the
Holy Land since Peter, the first
Pope, had gone there to pre
side over the Council of Jeru
salem. Peter's entry into Rome
some years later—at a date un
known, but certainly before
year 64— was recalled in
marked contrast to the rever
sal of that journey by his suc
cessor, Paul VL
Peter’s journey west had
taken months of perilous travel.
He entered Rome unknown and
unhailed on foot, one of a throng
jostled aong the Appian Way, the
road up from the ports in the
south. He was received by a
handful of Christians who were
already in Rome. Passersby, if
they took notice of him at all,
might have recognized him for
a Jew and a poor laborer. They
would have seen nothing else
in him until he began to speak,
preaching the teachings of
Christ. The only public notice
given to him by the city of Rome
was to be the death of a cri
minal by crucifixion as one
among thousands in the perse
cution of Nero, which began in
the year 64.
POPE PAUL’S journey east
began at 7:30 on the morning of
the fourth. Long before that
hour the proeannounced route
which his motorcade would
travel was lined with people.
Beginning in St. Peter’s Square
and all along the 12-mile route
to the airport laymen, school
children, priests, nuns, semi
narians and those on their way
to work stood for an hour and
more in the piercingly cold
winds of a clear winter morning
to witness the historic event and
to cheer the Pope's passing.
The Pope’s car passed thr
ough St. Peter’s Square preci
sely at 7:30 and moved slowly
as throngs crowded against the
car in which the Pope sat alone
with his private secretary, Fat
her Pasquale Macchi. Even with
a motorcycle escort, the
motorcade had to move so slow
ly through the crowded streets
as the smiling Pope repreatedly
gave his blessing that the jour
ney to the airport, which would
normally be a half-hour drive,
took a full hour.
AT FIUMICINO the two in
door levels and the roof of the
air terminal building were
packed with people who had
come to see the Pope off, A
cheer went up as the Pope’s
car came into sight at 8:30.
The car drove out onto the run
way alongside the jet airliner,
glaringly silver in the morning
sun and wearing Pope Paul’s
coat of arms on its side.
As soon as the Pope stepped
from his car he was greated by
Italian President Antonio Segni.
Walking along a carpet to an
awning covered tribune, Presi
dent Segni presented the follow
ing officials to the Pope: Pre-
Merzagora; President of Par
liament Brunettoo Bucciarelli
Ducci; Premier Aldo Moro;
vice president of the council
of Ministers, Pietro Nenni;
President of the Constitutional
Court Gaspare Ambrosini; De
fense Minister Fiulio Andre-
otti; Minister for Transport
and Civil Aviation Angelo Jer-
volino; Dean of the diplomatic
corps at the Holy See, and
die ambassadors of Jordan and
Israel to Italy.
THE POPE AND President
then walked to a podium where
they exchanged formal greet
ings.
Pope Paul described his
pilgrimage as one of "prayer
and penance," saying;
"Ours is intended to be are-
turn to the cradle of Christi
anity, ... a visit of prayer
to the places made holy by the
life, Passion and Resurrection
of Our Lord."
HE SAID HE hoped his pilg
rimage would advance the cause
of world peace.
"In these days," he declar
ed, "when the sacred liturgy
recalls the Prince of Peace, we
will beg Him to give to the world
this precious gift and to conso
lidate it always more firmly
among men, in families and
among peoples."
President Segni expressed to
the Pope the good wishes of the
Italian people and noted that
"the pilgrimage continues with
particular effectiveness the
2,000 - year tradition of the
Church in favor of peace, a
mission which was reaffirm
ed by the venerated Pope John
XX1I1 with such Christian ardor
in the encyclical, Pacem in
Terris."
PRESIDENT SEGNI recalled
the sorrowful warning of the
Pope s Christmas message and
added; "The Italian people
heeds those words in full
awareness of its task in the
world: the peace for which it
longs, peace in justice, in lib
erty and in love."
At the conclusion of his talk,
the Pope presented President
Segni with a commemorative
medal of his pilgrimage. He
then turned and gave his bless
ing to all present and almost
shouted: "Greetings to all.” He
then walked briskly toward
the plane, he turned and gave
his blessing again.
THE PLANE TAXIED out on
to the runway immediately and
was airborne at 8:55, climbed
steeply into the cloudless sky
and was watched by all present
until it was a diminishing sil
ver speak trailing a faint wisp
of white vapor.
When the Pope’s plane was
airborne every church bell in
Rome began to peal. To one
standing on a rooftop overlook
ing Rome it sounded as though
the whole city were singing.
A MANIFESTO issued by
Rome’s Mayor Giuseppe Della
Porta was posted on walls
throughout the city on the day
before the Pope's departure. It
read;
'The return of the Vicar of
Christ to the holy places of
Palestine is an event of such
magnitude and constitutes such
a high message of peace and
brother hood that its bound to
stir profound feelings in all men
of good will. Romans, let us
give to Paul VI a reverent
greeting together with our most
fervent good wishes for the ex
ceptional journey he is under
taking, And let us show him on
his return on Jan. 6 the exul
tant joy of our hearts. May the
testimony of the affection and
devotion of the Roman people go
before the Bishop of this eter
nal city."
POPE PAUL VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras of Con
stantinople exchange the kiss of peace.
Underlined On Trip