Pope Visits Again, 900 Years Later

The last pope to visit this proud lakeside city stopped in during a 1096 tour to whip up support for the First Crusade.

Nine centuries after Urban II’s visit, Pope John Paul II came Saturday to inspire support for his campaign of moral renewal.

Lake Como, a three-pronged waterway where steamers carry tourists to quaint villages facing snow-topped Alps, is a popular destination for foreigners on holiday and Milanese escaping their gray city on weekends.

Though John Paul has made 70 overseas trips and visited scores of Italian places since becoming pope in 1978, until Saturday he never traveled to affluent Como, world-renowned for its silk-making.

His first words made him sound like he wished he came sooner.

“You live in a region of special beauty, including this uplifting lake your city looks on to,” John Paul told thousands of Comaschi, as the locals are called, gathered at the dockside main square.

After praising the inspiration of nature, John Paul took up his tireless crusade to invigorate what he sees as sagging moral values in affluent societies with Christian traditions.

Denouncing “de-christianization and dehumanization,” John Paul asked men of good will to “recognize and propose authentic moral values.”

John Paul will meet with workers Sunday in Como’s 600-year-old cathedral, lead a rally for young people in the soccer stadium and celebrate Mass for an expected 100,000 people.