Word: rome
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That may have been true in the past. But no longer. Last week, as Pope John Paul II made his triumphal progress through Poland, the watching world began to grasp what people in Rome and the highly conservative Vatican Curia have known for months: this Pope not only sings, but he sings out. He also kisses babies, cuts red tape, says what he thinks, has an actor's (or a politician's) delight in an audience, and a former laborer's gift for gauging the common touch of a crowd...
...contrast to his introverted, complex predecessor, Paul VI, the Pope is an outgoing man who treats the people around him, and indeed the whole Roman Catholic Church, with infectious optimism. As Wilton Wynn, TIME bureau chief in Rome, reports, John Paul's impact is electric, exceeding even that of another people's Pope, the beloved John XXIII. Pilgrims throng the Vatican at a rate normally seen only in once-a-generation Holy Years. Vendors have sold more photos of John Paul since October than they did of Paul VI during his 15 years as Pope. Priests who hear...
Even anticlerical observers in Rome admit, rather glumly, that John Paul has galvanized Italian Catholics, especially the young. Says Cesare Pagani, Bishop of Città di Castello: "The arrival of Pope Wojtyla has turned our youth upside down. They are taking over the leadership of the young again to advance not only the ecclesiastical but the civil life of our country...
Most modern Popes have been Bishop of Rome in name only. As the first non-Italian in Peter's Chair in 455 years, John Paul plunged forth from the Apostolic Palace to learn his new turf. Each Sunday he visits a different parish and, in preparation, summons the parish priest to brief him. What is the street layout? How did the people vote in the last election? What are their problems? After one visit, he invited the parish priest back to the Vatican for supper and an evening of sipping the priest's homemade wine...
...affection for people, however politic they appear, seem to be more a matter of character than of calculation. John Paul appears almost driven to be out among his flock. "This Pope is not a workaholic; he's a live-aholic," observes a priest from an outlying parish in Rome. This, plus the normal burdens of office, puts an observable strain on even a robust 59-year-old. Since taking office, the Pope has suffered from a lack of his customary exercise and reportedly has dropped about 15 Ibs. due to overwork. He is installing an 83-ft. swimming pool...