Keep God Amid High-Tech, Pope Pleads Broken Homes Spell Trouble For U.S. Future, Pontiff Says
Pope John Paul II Friday asked modern, high-tech America to make room in its culture for “the mystery of God” and later said Roman Catholics who truly understand Jesus’ message will remain loyal to church teachings and ignore dissenters.
Weighing into the current political debate on family values, the pope said the future of the United States is imperiled by the rising tide of children growing up in broken homes. And in a thinly veiled swipe at welfare, he criticized a legal system that does not promote family unity.
After two days of rain, warm sunshine broke through the clouds on the third day of the pope’s U.S. visit, to the delight of the more than 75,000 faithful who jammed Aqueduct Race Track in Queens for an outdoor Mass.
At one point the pope’s mitre, or hat, was nearly blown off his head by a stiff breeze.
“Friday we had much rain, a symbol of life,” said the 75-year-old pontiff, who is scheduled to celebrate his largest Mass of the trip today in Central Park before leaving Sunday for Baltimore, the last stop on his five-day tour. “Today we have much wind, a symbol of the Holy Spirit.”
The crowd started arriving at the race track before dawn, and it reflected the diversity of the surrounding borough of Queens, a part of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
The Mass was marred by the death of a 60-year-old woman who suffered a heart attack as she stepped off a bus for the service, according to police. More than 150 people suffered injuries ranging from broken bones to sprains when they slipped in the mud and heat, or collapsed from exhaustion caused by the sunshine and high humidity.
Meanwhile, in the first breach of the heavy security surrounding the papal visit, a man carrying a gun and dressed as a U.S. Parks Service ranger was arrested Friday as he tried to enter the seminary grounds where Pope John Paul II was expected a few hours later, church officials said.
The man was wearing a holstered gun in plain view when he tried to enter the grounds with a group of volunteer ushers. He was arrested when he could not produce proper credentials. It was not immediately known if he was a Parks Service employee.
In his fourth major speech since his arrival in Newark on Wednesday, the pope devoted most of his remarks to spiritual and religious themes and made repeated references to biblical passages.
“In the midst of the magnificent scientific and technological civilization of which America is proud … is there room for the mystery of God?” the pope asked in his homily while standing under the white, yellow and green canvas of the altar erected on the race track’s infield.
The pope traveled from Manhattan to Aqueduct by helicopter. As he emerged at about 9 a.m., the crowd began to shout, “Pope John Paul II, we love you.”