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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