pope visit york 1982

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The Enduring Legacy of John Paul II’s 1982 Visit to Britain

“For the first time in history,” said Pope St. John Paul II after he stepped off the airplane, “a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

Joanna Bogle, February 16, 2022 – National Catholic Register

In 2022, the Church in Britain marks an important milestone in its long history: This May, it will be 40 years since the first visit of a pope to Britain.

And it almost didn’t happen.

There had been months of preparation, much debate and discussion in the media, elaborate rehearsals by choirs and cathedrals and Catholic organizations, the hiring of massive venues, including London’s famous Wembley Stadium — and then the Falklands war broke out, and the whole idea of a papal visit was called into question.

Most people in Britain knew little or nothing about the Falkland Islands, a small British colony in the South Atlantic. In April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falklands, swept the small British garrison aside, and announced that the islands were now in Argentinian control.  Britain responded by sending a Royal Navy task force, and effectively the British were at war.

As part of the anniversary, I have been dipping into archives and discovering the inside story of the emergency meetings and messages that went back and forth between Britain and Rome as the crisis deepened and the papal visit was at risk of being abandoned. There must have been a great deal of prayer. Pope John Paul II, of course, led the prayers for peace, and British and Argentinian bishops were summoned to Rome, where he celebrated a Mass with them all. And then came the climax of the last-minute rescue operation to save the situation: He flew to Argentina for a swiftly arranged papal visit, before going on to Britain.

It was clear throughout that the Pope was not only neutral but that he was vigorously promoting peace: This was his consistent message, and it never wavered. On this basis, he was able to fly to London’s Gatwick Airport, where, as planned in detail over the previous months, a large crowd, drawn from Catholic parishes across Surrey and Sussex, had gathered to greet him. I was among that crowd. I remember the early-morning start and the excitement as we all arrived in a chartered bus, and then the wait at the airport, where the Duke of Norfolk — by long-established tradition Britain’s senior Catholic layman — greeted the Pope at the airport steps.

This was not, it was emphasized, an official visit. This was a pastoral visit of the Pope to Britain’s Catholics. So no formal representative of the queen was at the airport, and there were no government officials. There was music, and we sang a welcoming hymn. Then there were speeches — and the history was made. The Pope summed it up when he proclaimed, “For the first time in history, a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

In its own way, the tragedy of the Falklands War — more than 800 men, British and Argentinian, would eventually lose their lives in the fighting — helped to create a situation where old antagonisms dating back to the Reformation in Britain seemed to dwindle away. The papal visit became a true opportunity for a message of peace and goodwill, with anti-Catholicism of the old sort somehow at variance with a general recognition of the needs of the modern era. The whole visit had, in any case, been planned with ecumenical goodwill in mind, and there were some powerful moments, notably at Canterbury Cathedral, where the Pope prayed with Anglicans at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket.

And, yes, he did meet the queen — a courtesy visit, with tea at Buckingham Palace — with evident goodwill on both sides. Queen Elizabeth was wearing, I remember, a blue dress, and they were smiling and chatting as they emerged from the palace after tea. Postcards of the scene quickly became popular — I’ve still got mine.

The papal pilgrimage had the seven sacraments as its theme. At a packed Mass at Westminster Cathedral, the Pope baptized seven candidates of various ages, and then, after crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge, he arrived at St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark, which had been cleared of pews and filled with stretchers and wheelchairs bearing sick and disabled people from across Britain, and he administered the sacrament of the sick. And so it went on, across England and Wales and Scotland, with a penitential service, first Holy Communions, confirmations, ordinations and renewal of marriage vows. Vast crowds came, powerful moments of prayer experienced.

It was an unforgettable time. Looking back through the archives, something of the joy and excitement is still evident. So, too, are the changes since those days — the letters are typewritten (remember typewriters?) and there is just one reference to “a computer being installed” as a great innovation at one venue to store relevant information. Color photography relied entirely on film, paper and chemicals (some of the pictures have that curious greenish tinge that I remember well).  Fashions have, of course, changed: Ladies wore dresses, and there were even quite a lot of hats.

What did the papal visit achieve? A great deal. With its massive television coverage, it opened up an authentic vision of Catholic worship: from how Catholics pray to the centrality of the Eucharist. People saw what a baptism is and what is meant by the anointing of the sick. They saw the Pope as a bishop, a man in a white robe preaching about peace and the importance of family life and family prayer. Old notions of the Pope as a sinister foreign figure intent on imposing some sort of political rule were recognized as propaganda from a vanished era.

And that 1982 visit was followed, in the next century, by an official state visit by Pope Benedict XVI, where among much else, he addressed Parliament with a magnificent setting out of the respective roles of Church and state centered on a ringing call for true religious freedom. He led young people in a massive unforgettable night vigil of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in London’s Hyde Park, and he beatified John Henry Newman in a glorious Mass at Cofton Park on the outskirts of Birmingham.

The year 2022 sees another major milestone in Britain’s story: the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She has always been clear in her commitment to the Christian faith and spoken of it as central to her life and service.

So much has changed in the 70 years of her reign. While there has been progress in fields that include health and general prosperity, there is also much that is cause for great sadness: Britain is a country with too much violent crime, many unhappy young people, a drug crisis, a worrying suicide rate, and a collapse in a general understanding of many basic moral values, including the value of human life itself.

But the Christian message is still on offer and is the message that holds the hope of renewal; and in a country with a long history, and a tradition of marking anniversaries and jubilees, 2022 brings scope for missionary activity on a new scale. We must pray the opportunity is taken up. A reminder of that historic papal visit four decades ago is part of that.

John Paul’s 1982 visit to Britain an "extraordinary event"

By Vatican News

“Saint John Paul II’s visit [to Britain in 1982] was an extraordinary event in the life of the Catholic Church in the UK,” writes Sally Axworthy, the British Ambassador to the Holy See.

Axworthy notes that it was the first time a reigning pontiff had ever set foot on British soil, and that the visit “marked a historic moment in UK-Holy See relations”.

The Holy Father visited nine cities in England, Wales and Scotland over the course of six days. In addition to his meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, highlights of the visit included addresses to young people in Cardiff and Edinburgh, and an open-air Mass in Glasgow that drew more than 300,000 participants.

“Ecumenism was central to his visit,” Axworthy says, noting John Paul’s visit to Canterbury Cathedral, where he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.

“By attending the cathedral founded by St Augustine of Canterbury on his mission to England from Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century, St John Paul II made a powerful statement of the churches' determination to walk forward together,” she writes. “This ecumenical dialogue has flourished ever since.”

John Paul’s 1982 visit to Britain paved the way for future “great moments” in the life of the Church in the UK, including Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in 2010 and the canonisation of St John Henry Newman in 2019. The “legacy” of that visit, says Axworthy, “was the strengthening and deepening of the relationship between the UK and the Holy See that is bearing fruit today”.

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John Paul II celebrates Mass at York Racecourse

I am happy to be with you in this historic city of York. We are in the shadow, as it were, of the beautiful Minster, and in the spiritual company of so many saintly men and women who have graced these northern counties.

My brothers and sisters,

On this feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary I greet you in the Lord. I am happy to be with you in this historic city of York. We are in the shadow, as it were, of the beautiful Minster, and in the spiritual company of so many saintly men and women who have graced these northern counties.

I deeply appreciate the presence here of many fellow Christians. I rejoice that we are united in a common Baptism and in our renewed search for full Christian unity.

I greet all those civic representatives from different cities and towns of Northern England. I thank you all for your welcome.

I am conscious of the history, especially the religious history, of this part of England. I refer to Holy Island where Aidan and Cuthbert brought the Catholic faith. I recall Bede, who wrote so lovingly of the early life of the Church in England. I remember that a thousand years later men and women laid down their lives in this region for the faith they loved. Mary Ward taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to English exiles; Margaret Clitheroe gave her life in this city of York. These holy women inspire women today to take their rightful place in the life of the Church, as befits their equality of rights and particular dignity. In that same period the priest, Nicholas Postgate, carried the Gospel across the moors and gave his life on this very spot.

This morning, in Manchester, young men were ordained to the sacred priesthood of Christ. They were answering the call of God’s love. For many people, as for Margaret Clitheroe, that call from God comes in and through marriage and family life. This is our theme. In our liturgical setting, which calls to mind the supremacy of God’s saving grace, you married people will be invited to renew the promises you first made on your wedding day.

In a marriage a man and a woman pledge themselves to one another in an unbreakable alliance of total mutual self-giving. A total union of love. Love that is not a passing emotion or temporary infatuation, but a responsible and free decision to bind oneself completely, “in good times and in bad”, to one’s partner. It is the gift of oneself to the other. It is a love to be proclaimed before the eyes of the whole world. It is unconditional.

To be capable of such love calls for careful preparation from early childhood to wedding day. It requires the constant support of Church and society throughout its development.

The love of husband and wife in God’s plan leads beyond itself and new life is generated, a family is born. The family is a community of love and life, a home in which children are guided to maturity.

Marriage is a holy sacrament. Those baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus are married in his name also. Their love is a sharing in the love of God. Te is its source. The marriages of Christian couples, today renewed and blessed, are images on earth of the wonder of God, the loving, life-giving communion of Three Persons in one God, and of God’s covenant in Christ, with the Church.

Christian marriage is a sacrament of salvation. It is the pathway to holiness for all members of a family. With all my heart, therefore, I urge that your homes be centres of prayer; homes where families are at ease in the presence of God; homes to which others are invited to share hospitality, prayer and the praise of God: “With gratitude in your hearts sing psalm and hymns and inspired songs to God; and never say or do anything except in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3, 16. 17).

In your country, there are many marriages between Catholics and other baptized Christians. Sometimes these couples experience special difficulties. To these families I say: You live in your marriage the hopes and difficulties of the path to Christian unity. Express that hope in prayer together, in the unity of love. Together invite the Holy Spirit of love into your hearts and into your homes. He will help you to grow in trust and understanding.

Brothers and sisters, “May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts . . . let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you” (Col. 3, 15. 16).

Recently I wrote an Apostolic Exhortation to the whole Catholic Church regarding the role of the Christian Family in the modern world. In that Exhortation I underlined the positive aspects of family life today, which include: a more lively awareness of personal freedom and greater attention to the quality of interpersonal relationships in marriage, greater attention to promoting the dignity of women, to responsible procreation, to the education of children. But at the same time I could not fail to draw attention to the negative phenomena: a corruption of the idea and experience of freedom, with consequent self-centredness in human relations; serious misconceptions regarding the relationship between parents and children; the growing number of divorces; the scourge of abortion; the spread of a contraceptive and anti-life mentality. Besides these destructive forces, there are social and economic conditions which affect millions of human beings, undermining the strength and stability of marriage and family life. In addition there is the cultural onslaught against the family by those who attack married life as “irrelevant” and “outdated”. All of this is a serious challenge to society and to the Church. As I wrote then: “History is not simply a fixed progression towards what is better, but rather an event of freedom, and even a struggle between freedoms that are in mutual conflict” (IOANNIS PAULI PP. II Familiaris Consortio, 6).

Married couples, I speak to you of the hopes and ideals that sustain the Christian vision of marriage and family life. You will find the strength to be faithful to your marriage vows in your love for God and your love for each other and for your children. Let this love be the rock that stands firm in the face of every storm and temptation. What better blessing could the Pope with for your families than what Saint Paul wished for the Christians of Colossae: “Be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes . . . put on love” (Col. 3, 12-14).

Being a parent today brings worries and difficulties, as well as joys and satisfactions. Your children are your treasure. They love you very much, even if they sometimes find it hard to express that love. They look for independence and are reluctant to conform. Sometimes they wish to reject past traditions and even reject their faith.

In the family, bridges are meant to be built, not broken; and new expressions of wisdom and truth can be fashioned from the meeting of experience and enquiry. Yours is a true and proper ministry in the Church. Open the doors of your home and of your heart to all the generations of your family.

We cannot overlook the fact that some marriages fail. But still it is our duty to proclaim the true plan of God for all married love and to insist on fidelity to that plan, as we go towards the fullness of life in the Kingdom of heaven. Let us not forget that God’s love for his people, Christ’s love for the Church, is everlasting and can never be broken. And the convenant between a man and a woman joined in Christian marriage is as indissoluble and irrevocable as this love. This truth is a great consolation for the world, and because some marriages fail, there is an ever greater need for the Church and all her members to proclaim it faithfully.

Christ himself, the living source of grace and mercy, is close to all those whose marriage has known trial, pain, or anguish. Throughout the ages countless married people have drawn from the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s Cross and Resurrection the strength to bear Christian witness – at times very difficult – to the indissolubility of Christian marriage. And all the efforts of the Christian people to bear faithful witness to God’s law, despite human weakness, have not been in vain. These efforts are the human response made, through grace, to a God who has first loved us and who has given himself for us.

As I explained in my Apostolic Exhortation “Familiaris Consortio”, the Church is vitally concerned for the pastoral care of the family in all difficult cases. We must reach out with love – the love of Christ – to those who know the pain of failure in marriage; to those who know the loneliness of bringing up a family on their own; to those whose family life is dominated by tragedy or by illness of mind or body. I praise all those who help people wounded by the breakdown of their marriage, by showing them Christ’s compassion and counselling them according to Christ’s truth.

To the public authorities, and to all men and women of good will, I say: treasure your families. Protect their rights. Support the family by your laws and administration. Allow the voice of the family to be heard in the making of your policies. The future of your society, the future of humanity, passes by way of the family.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, who are now about to renew the promises of your wedding day: may your words express once more the truth that is in your heart and may they generate faithful love within your families. Make sure that your families are real communities of love. Allow that love to reach out to other people, near and far. Reach out especially to the lonely and burdened people of your neighbourhood, to the poor and to all those on the margin of society. In this way you will build up your society in peace, for peace requires trust, and trust is the child of love, and love comes to birth in the cradle of the family.

Today and always, may God bless all of you, and all the families of Britain. Amen.

And how can we not recall those many families in Britain and in Argentina who bear the heavy weight of pain and sorrow because of the loss of their loved ones in the South Atlantic. As we ask God to comfort them in their reflection, let us pray for peace a just and lasting peace so that other families may be spared the sufferings of war, so that other husbands, wives and children may not have to surrender what is most sacred in the community of the family, love and life. Amen.

Pope John Paul II’s Homily at York Racecourse in 1982

Homily given a York Racecourse by Pope John Paul II in 1982

Papal Liturgy at York Racecourse in 1982

Liturgy from the Mass at York Racecourse in 1982 with Pope John Paul II

Sacred statue to journey from Wales to London for the Pope’s visit

More ‘joyful noise’ for papal visit to uk.

Communications training aimed at helping young catholics to spread the Word online.

Papal pilgrimage to Fatima

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A very different papal visit from that of John Paul II in 1982

London letter: the catholic church says that security rules will make it difficult for the faithful to attend, writes mark hennessy….

LONDON LETTER: The Catholic Church says that security rules will make it difficult for the faithful to attend, writes MARK HENNESSY

JUST HOURS away from the beginning of Pope Benedict’s visit to England and Scotland, the Catholic Church is nervous.

His enemies believe his visit should be the stage for mass protests against the Vatican; his supporters hope for a show of support. Mostly, however, the British public is meeting the occasion of Pope Benedict’s visit with indifference.

Despite months of planning for the worst, British police forces now seem confident that the visit will not be targeted by unruly demonstrators, though security will not be relaxed until after his aircraft has taken off for home.

The invitation to make a state visit to the UK was made to Pope Benedict last year by the former prime minister, Presbyterian Gordon Brown, when he was received at the Vatican; though it was always believed that Mr Brown’s predecessor, Tony Blair, who converted to Catholicism after he quit Downing Street, had wanted to host a Papal visit during his time in office.

Much has changed since Pope John Paul II came to the UK on a pastoral visit in 1982 during the Falklands War. He spent six days being greeted like a rock-star as he travelled throughout Britain. In Liverpool, one million lined the seven-mile route from the city’s airport to its Anglican and Catholic cathedrals. Three hundred and fifty thousand came out in Coventry; 200,000 in Manchester; and 190,000 in York.

The 1982 visit faced its own crises. Indeed, it only went ahead after a desperate effort by the Archbishop of Liverpool to persuade the Pope not to cancel everything four days out because of his anger at the British invasion of the Falklands and his refusal to meet with then-British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, as protocol would have allowed. In the end, the two did not meet.

However, 1982 is not just a foreign land for the Catholic Church, but also for the Church of England and many other Christian religions. The UK has in the three decades since become an increasingly secular society, less inclined to listen to religious figures, and where those who still see themselves as believers increasingly adopt an a la carte attitude to their faith.

An opinion poll published by the Catholic magazine, The Tablet, earlier this month found that just a quarter of those polled from the general population, not just Catholics, actively supported the idea of a state visit for Pope Benedict, while only 24 per cent believed the Catholic Church is a force for good. Only 36 per cent of those polled strongly agreed that religions of any kind are a force for good.

Pope Benedict is not Pope John Paul, who arrived in England as the survivor of an assassination attempt. Neither does he enjoy the communication skills possessed by the Polish pope. He has been damaged in the public eye by his handling of child-abuse cases involving priests – the ultimate responsibility for which lies at the door of his better-loved predecessor.

Nevertheless, Benedict has been pope for five years, and, yet, The Tablet’s opinion poll showed that more people recognised Prince Charles, X Factor entertainment guru Simon Cowell and England soccer manager Fabio Capello than the pope; though he did better than the Church of England Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who was identified by just 50 per cent of those polled.

In a letter to the Guardian yesterday, opponents of the visit, including actor Stephen Fry, academic Richard Dawkins and writer Terry Prachett, insisted the pope should not be given the honour of a state visit.

They argued that the Vatican is responsible for opposing the distribution of condoms, so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of Aids, and promoting segregated education. It had sought to deny abortion to “even the most vulnerable women”; opposes equal rights for gay people; and failed to address “the many cases of abuse of children within its own organisation”. “In any case, we reject the masquerading of the Holy See as a state and the pope as a head of state as merely a convenient fiction to amplify the international influence of the Vatican,” said the group.

Questioned about the last-minute preparations on Tuesday, leading British Catholic Chris Patten, who is Prime Minister David Cameron’s liaison for the visit with the church, denied responsibility for the crowds that will greet the pope. Such are matters for the Catholic Church, he was quick to point out.

The crowds will be a fraction of those of 1982. The church has grumbled that security rules have made it tougher than it should be for the faithful to attend.

Patten’s quick footwork in front of the cameras tell much about this visit: in 1982, many wanted to claim credit later; in 2010, it is about wanting to avoid blame.

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The day the Pope came to Manchester - welcomed by 250,000 worshippers

A quarter-of-a-million people packed into Heaton Park to hear Pope John Paul II celebrate Mass

• 15:54, 31 MAY 2018
• Updated 16:15, 31 MAY 2018

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History was made in Heaton Park 36 years ago when John Paul II became the first Pope to visit Britain. More than 250,000 people packed into the park to hear the Pontiff celebrate Mass from a specially constructed open-air altar.

The date was May 31, 1982 – exactly one year after he was shot in St Peter’s Square in a failed assassination attempt.

Pope John Paul’s visit was described as a pastoral one rather than a state occasion as Britain was at war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.

Tensions were high as Argentina had invaded the South Atlantic islands a month earlier.

The visit was nearly cancelled, but diplomacy won the day.

For the sake of balance, the Pope made a hastily-arranged 30-hour pastoral visit to Argentina on June 11 and 12 almost as soon as he left the UK.

But none of this mattered to the crowd that gathered expectantly to witness the Pope’s arrival.

Many had camped overnight.

It was a sunny morning and there was a carnival atmosphere in the air.

The Pope’s helicopter touched down at the nearby Convent of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth at 8.10am.

He was greeted by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Salford, the Rt Rev Thomas Holland and the auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Burke.

The Pontiff spoke warmly to nuns and staff.

He then met VIPs, including the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester James Anderton and the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Sir Emmanuel Jacobovits, ahead of the Mass.

Then it was time for the short journey to the thousands of devoted worshippers waiting in Heaton Park.

The Pope used his favoured vehicle – the bullet-proof British Leyland ‘Popemobile’.

As our pictures show, welcoming banners and placards were paraded in front of him.

See more pictures of the day from our archive:

Pupils at Chorlton Convent School made their own Papal banner measuring 30ft by 10ft.

Other placards were more informal, but no less heart-felt.

One, borne aloft by a crowd of worshippers from Langley, simply said: ‘Ow Doo John Paul!’

The oldest Catholic scout group in the world, Mount Carmel Scouts or the 53rd Manchester Scout Group, were chosen as the Pope’s guard of honour on his way to Heaton Park.

As a result, they became the only scout group in the world eligible to wear the Papal colours on their neckerchiefs.

A choir of 3,000 sang as the Pope ascended the 20ft dais to celebrate Mass.

He also ordained 12 priests, telling them: “You must be men of God, his close friends. You must develop daily patterns of prayer, and penance must be a regular part of your life.”

The silver and gold chalice proudly displayed in our photo and used in the Heaton Park Mass was made by silversmith Andrew Coomber.

In another honour for Manchester, the chalice used at the Holy Communion in Cardiff was made by Middleton silversmithing student Bernadette Varilone, who was actually one of the helpers at the park. Cardiff was the last stop on the Pope’s visit.

After Mass, the Pope John Paul planted a commemorative tree and headed back to Nazareth House for an honest, northern lunch.

The M.E.N. of the time reported that it consisted of local black pudding, roast beef and apple tart.

Polish beer was served too to remind the Pontiff of his home country.

From Manchester the Pope travelled by helicopter to Knavesmire Racecourse in York where more than 200,000 people gathered to celebrate the liturgy of the word. From there he flew by jet to Edinburgh.

A year after the historic visit, a 16.5 ton granite boulder was unveiled by Bishop Holland at the site where Pope John Paul II said Mass.

The inscription contains an extract from the Pope’s speech to the congregation.

After his visit the Pope sent a telegram to Bishop Thomas Holland. It said: “With many joyful memories of my visit to Britain I wish to assure you and your people of my deep appreciation of the warm welcome accorded to me in Manchester. Cordially thankful for this abundant outpouring of love in Christ I impart to you and your diocese my Apostolic Blessing.”.

It was signed Cannes Paulus PP II.

Brilliant pictures like these – and many more like them from the M.E.N. archives – feature in Clive Hardy’s latest book Around Manchester In The 1960s. The book is available at £19.99 with free postage for M.E.N. readers.

Order your copy now by visiting the iNostalgia website, inostalgia.co.uk , or by filling in the coupon in Wednesday's Nostalgia supplement in the M.E.N.

In the meantime, Clive Hardy’s previous book, the much-acclaimed Around Manchester in the 1950s, is on sale now at all good bookshops. The book covers every aspect of local life in more than 200 images from the archives of the M.E.N.

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The massive crowds that gathered 40 years ago to see the Pope in Cardiff

During the Welsh leg of his UK tour Pope John Paul II even learned a Welsh phrase for the visit

• 11:34, 26 JAN 2022

Back in 1982, Pope John Paul II travelled to many countries, which included a tour of the UK but his one trip to Cardiff will always be remembered for the hundreds of thousands of people it attracted from all over the UK.

As tradition dictates, His Holiness kissed the tarmac as he landed on Welsh soil from Scotland.

The then Archbishop of Cardiff, the Most Rev John Murphy, met the Pope and accompanied him to Pontcanna Fields to celebrate Mass and First Holy Communions.

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The Holy Father even delivered a small part of his homily in Welsh and said: “I would like to speak to these little ones who are about to receive Holy Communion for the first time.

"Dear children: Jesus is coming to you in a new way today, in a special way. He wants to live in you. He wants to speak to you in your heart. He wants to be with you all through your day.”

The afternoon’s programme took Pope John Paul II to Ninian Park in Cardiff for a National Youth Rally where he was greeted by more than 35,000 young people.

The momentous day was 40 years ago and is still remembered fondly by those who queued and camped out overnight to get their space in the crowds.

What do you miss most about the past 30 years? The fashions, music, or perhaps the way of life. Take a look at our nostalgia survey .

Nuns, one with binoculars, wait to see Pope John Paul II at Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff during his visit - June 2 1982

Pope John Paul II at Cardiff airport on his visit to Wales as he kneels down to kiss the ground. June 2 1982

Pope John Paul II landed at Cardiff Airport

Pope John Paul II at Cardiff airport on his visit to Wales

Pope John Paul II blesses the crowd during his visit to Cardiff

Pope John Paul II making his way through the crowds at the Pontcanna Mass in the Pope 'mobile'

The Pope greets two members of the congregation at Ninian Park

The Pope meets three young ladies in Welsh costume at Cardiff airport. The girls who presented flowers to the Pope were Samantha Bennett, age 9, Station Road, Barry, Donna Morris, aged 9 of Walnut Tree Close, Radyr, with her sister Heidi aged 13.

Mr Harold Christie of Penreheol, North Cornelly, puts finishing touches to his engraved etching of the Pope, which was presented to the Pope during his visit

Martyn Davies of the Aberkenfig diocese, youth representative of the St Vincent de Paul Society pictured with the statue of St Vincent de Paul which he handed to Pope John Paul at Ninian Park for blessing. With Martyn are Nicholas Doyle and Darren Flaherty

Andrzej Hubert pictured with his son Marian, aged seven, at Pontcanna Fields

Some of the early arrivals at Pontcanna for Pope John Paul II visit in 1982

The Pope speaks to Sir Cennydd Treharne on his arrival at Cardiff Airport

The crowd awaits the arrival of the Pope at Pontcanna F ields. Among them were Susan Moran and Ann Meeson from Plymouth pictured with their children

The Pope on his arrival in Wales

Thumbs up from Auxilliary Bishop of Shrewsbury on duty at the youth rally at Ninian Park

The crowd at Pontcanna Fields for Pope John Paul II's visit to Cardiff in 1982

The Welsh Dragon - the latest of many national flags waved in welcome to the Pope - on display during the Ninian Park youth rally

The Pope says farewell to Wales

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The Enduring Legacy of John Paul II’s 1982 Visit to Britain

“For the first time in history,” said Pope St. John Paul II after he stepped off the airplane, “a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

In 2022, the Church in Britain marks an important milestone in its long history: This May, it will be 40 years since the first visit of a pope to Britain.

And it almost didn’t happen.

There had been months of preparation, much debate and discussion in the media, elaborate rehearsals by choirs and cathedrals and Catholic organizations, the hiring of massive venues, including London’s famous Wembley Stadium — and then the Falklands war broke out, and the whole idea of a papal visit was called into question.

Most people in Britain knew little or nothing about the Falkland Islands, a small British colony in the South Atlantic. In April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falklands, swept the small British garrison aside, and announced that the islands were now in Argentinian control.  Britain responded by sending a Royal Navy task force, and effectively the British were at war.

As part of the anniversary, I have been dipping into archives and discovering the inside story of the emergency meetings and messages that went back and forth between Britain and Rome as the crisis deepened and the papal visit was at risk of being abandoned. There must have been a great deal of prayer. Pope John Paul II, of course, led the prayers for peace, and British and Argentinian bishops were summoned to Rome, where he celebrated a Mass with them all. And then came the climax of the last-minute rescue operation to save the situation: He flew to Argentina for a swiftly arranged papal visit, before going on to Britain.

It was clear throughout that the Pope was not only neutral but that he was vigorously promoting peace: This was his consistent message, and it never wavered. On this basis, he was able to fly to London’s Gatwick Airport, where, as planned in detail over the previous months, a large crowd, drawn from Catholic parishes across Surrey and Sussex, had gathered to greet him. I was among that crowd. I remember the early-morning start and the excitement as we all arrived in a chartered bus, and then the wait at the airport, where the Duke of Norfolk — by long-established tradition Britain’s senior Catholic layman — greeted the Pope at the airport steps.

This was not, it was emphasized, an official visit. This was a pastoral visit of the Pope to Britain’s Catholics. So no formal representative of the queen was at the airport, and there were no government officials. There was music, and we sang a welcoming hymn. Then there were speeches — and the history was made. The Pope summed it up when he proclaimed , “For the first time in history, a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

In its own way, the tragedy of the Falklands War — more than 800 men, British and Argentinian, would eventually lose their lives in the fighting — helped to create a situation where old antagonisms dating back to the Reformation in Britain seemed to dwindle away. The papal visit became a true opportunity for a message of peace and goodwill, with anti-Catholicism of the old sort somehow at variance with a general recognition of the needs of the modern era. The whole visit had, in any case, been planned with ecumenical goodwill in mind, and there were some powerful moments, notably at Canterbury Cathedral , where the Pope prayed with Anglicans at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket.

And, yes, he did meet the queen — a courtesy visit, with tea at Buckingham Palace — with evident goodwill on both sides. Queen Elizabeth was wearing, I remember, a blue dress, and they were smiling and chatting as they emerged from the palace after tea. Postcards of the scene quickly became popular — I’ve still got mine.

The papal pilgrimage had the seven sacraments as its theme. At a packed Mass at Westminster Cathedral , the Pope baptized seven candidates of various ages, and then, after crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge, he arrived at St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark, which had been cleared of pews and filled with stretchers and wheelchairs bearing sick and disabled people from across Britain, and he administered the sacrament of the sick. And so it went on, across England and Wales and Scotland, with a penitential service, first Holy Communions, confirmations, ordinations and renewal of marriage vows. Vast crowds came, powerful moments of prayer experienced.

It was an unforgettable time. Looking back through the archives, something of the joy and excitement is still evident. So, too, are the changes since those days — the letters are typewritten (remember typewriters?) and there is just one reference to “a computer being installed” as a great innovation at one venue to store relevant information. Color photography relied entirely on film, paper and chemicals (some of the pictures have that curious greenish tinge that I remember well).  Fashions have, of course, changed: Ladies wore dresses, and there were even quite a lot of hats.

What did the papal visit achieve? A great deal. With its massive television coverage, it opened up an authentic vision of Catholic worship: from how Catholics pray to the centrality of the Eucharist. People saw what a baptism is and what is meant by the anointing of the sick. They saw the Pope as a bishop, a man in a white robe preaching about peace and the importance of family life and family prayer. Old notions of the Pope as a sinister foreign figure intent on imposing some sort of political rule were recognized as propaganda from a vanished era.

And that 1982 visit was followed, in the next century, by an official state visit by Pope Benedict XVI, where among much else, he addressed Parliament with a magnificent setting out of the respective roles of Church and state centered on a ringing call for true religious freedom. He led young people in a massive unforgettable night vigil of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in London’s Hyde Park, and he beatified John Henry Newman in a glorious Mass at Cofton Park on the outskirts of Birmingham.

The year 2022 sees another major milestone in Britain’s story: the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She has always been clear in her commitment to the Christian faith and spoken of it as central to her life and service.

So much has changed in the 70 years of her reign. While there has been progress in fields that include health and general prosperity, there is also much that is cause for great sadness: Britain is a country with too much violent crime, many unhappy young people, a drug crisis, a worrying suicide rate, and a collapse in a general understanding of many basic moral values, including the value of human life itself.

But the Christian message is still on offer and is the message that holds the hope of renewal; and in a country with a long history, and a tradition of marking anniversaries and jubilees, 2022 brings scope for missionary activity on a new scale. We must pray the opportunity is taken up. A reminder of that historic papal visit four decades ago is part of that. 

• John Paul ii
• united kingdom
• great britain
• papal travels
• queen elizabeth ii

Joanna Bogle Joanna Bogle is the author of some 20 books, including several historical biographies and A Book of Seasons and Celebrations with information on traditions and customs marking the Church year. Her most recent book is John Paul II: Man of Prayer with colleague Clare Anderson, exploring the spiritual life of St. John Paul the Great. She broadcasts regularly with EWTN and initiated popular "Catholic History Walks" around London.

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Pope Francis may visit United States in September after UN invitation

By Andrea Gagliarducci

Rome Newsroom, Apr 25, 2024 / 07:22 am

Pope Francis is reportedly considering returning to the United States in September to speak before the United Nations General Assembly.

The news was initially reported by the French Catholic newspaper La Croix and has not yet been officially confirmed by the Vatican. A source from the Vatican Secretariat of State, meanwhile, told CNA this week that “a formal invitation has arrived from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Pope Francis seems inclined to respond positively.”

If the New York trip occurs, the pope would visit the United Nations during its “Summit of the Future,” which the international body will convene from Sept. 22–23.

The possible trip to the United States could change the pope’s already-busy September travel schedule. The Holy See Press Office has announced that Pope Francis will be in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, and Singapore from Sept. 2–13.

Pope Francis is also expected at the end of September in Belgium, where he is scheduled to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the University of Louvain, which has been divided into two different linguistic entities since the 1960s. The Holy Father told Mexican television network Televisa last December that he intended to travel to Belgium in 2024.

According to a source familiar with the planning of papal trips, Pope Francis’ trip to Louvain could be postponed to 2025. The postponement of the journey would leave room at the end of September for the visit to the United Nations.

During his planned stay in Belgium, Pope Francis will also celebrate Mass at the national shrine of Koelkenberg. There are also rumors that the pontiff will stop in Luxembourg, one of the small nations favored by the pope for trips to Europe. Luxembourg officials have denied the visit, but the Vatican Secretariat of State has indicated the trip is possible.

The September summit’s objective is to strengthen the structures of the United Nations and global “governance” to face more fully the “new and old challenges” of the coming years, the U.N. has said. 

The meeting will lead a “pact for the future” to advance rapidly toward realizing the U.N.’s “sustainable development goals.”

In a meeting with students in April, Pope Francis described the summit as “an important event,” with the Holy Father urging students to help ensure the plan “becomes concrete and is implemented through processes and actions for change.”

Pope Francis, who is 87, has undergone two surgeries in the last four years and is under regular medical screening. A planned trip to Abu Dhabi to participate in the COP28 meeting was canceled last December due to health reasons. 

The pope was last in the United States in 2015, during which he also appeared before the United Nations.

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Pope’s Visit to Art Exhibition in Prison Is a First for Venice Biennale

Incarcerated women serve as guides to the show, which reflects Pope Francis’ longtime commitment to society’s marginalized people.

By Elisabetta Povoledo

Reporting from Venice and Vatican City

Landing by helicopter at a women’s prison where the Vatican has mounted its pavilion for the Venice Biennale international art exhibition, Pope Francis on Sunday told the women incarcerated there that they had a “special place in my heart.”

“Grazie,” one woman called out. Others applauded.

Many of the women had participated with artists in creating works that hang throughout the prison for the exhibition, titled “With My Eyes.” Francis, the first pope ever to visit — if briefly — a Venice Biennale, said that it was “fundamental” for the prison system “to offer detainees the tools and room for human, spiritual, cultural and professional growth, creating the conditions for their healthy reintegration.”

“Not to isolate dignity, but to give new possibilities,” Francis said to applause.

Over the decades, countries participating in the Biennale — the world’s principal showcase for new art — have used deconsecrated churches, former beer factories, water buses and various other sites to display their art, but this was the first time a prison was selected.

That made the project “more complex and more difficult to implement,” Bruno Racine, the director of two venues of the Pinault Collection in Venice and a co-curator of the Vatican Pavilion, said in an interview. But the setting is consistent with Francis’ message of inclusivity toward marginalized people, he added.

The Vatican project has received an overwhelmingly positive public reception, but it has not been without controversy. Some critics raised ethical concerns about the intersection of powerful institutions like the Vatican and the Biennale with the limited autonomy of imprisoned women. Others suggested that the Vatican, in mounting the show, was complicit in a penal system in which overcrowding remains a serious issue .

Still others demanded that the pope request pardons or at least reduced sentences for any women who were incarcerated because they had responded violently to domestic abuse.

“I don’t think the Vatican has the power to have any influence over Italian justice,” Mr. Racine said of that idea.

While the Vatican has not publicly responded to the critiques, Francis has been consistently outspoken about domestic abuse, saying in 2021 that there was something “almost satanic” about the high number of cases of domestic violence against women.

He has also been a vocal advocate of prison reform, denouncing overcrowding and often meeting with inmates during his travels.

On Sunday, Francis said that prison was “a harsh reality, and problems such as overcrowding, the lack of facilities and resources, and episodes of violence give rise to a great deal of suffering there.” But he said prison could also be a place where people’s dignity could be “promoted through mutual respect and the nurturing of talents and abilities, perhaps dormant or imprisoned by the vicissitudes of life.”

The pope described his artistic vision to artists he called to the Sistine Chapel last year , telling them to “think of the poor and to ensure that art went into the peripheries,” the Vatican’s culture chief, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, said earlier this year. On Sunday, Francis told artists involved with the Vatican project that “the world needs artists.”

The curators, Mr. Racine and Chiara Parisi, of Centre Pompidou-Metz, the French museum, selected a handful of artists to work with the incarcerated women to create works that are scattered through the prison.

One, a 1965 serigraph featuring the word Hope backward, was hung over the door of the prison canteen, where about a quarter of the 80-odd inmates who agreed to serve as guides to the show first meet visitors. The serigraph was created by the artist Corita Kent, a former nun and an activist for social justice who died in 1986.

The Lebanese artist Simone Fattal transcribed poems and reflections by the incarcerated women on lava slabs that line a brick corridor: “I thought I was suffocating.” “I often think of my family.” “I am so sad.”

In another room were small stylized paintings by the French artist Claire Tabouret that were based on family photos the women had given her.

Visitors get only a brief glimpse of penitentiary life, but during the tour a short film, directed by Marco Perego and starring his wife, the actor Zoe Saldaña, shows the conditions inside in bleak black and white: shared rooms, shared showers, little privacy. Both inmates and professional actresses acted in the film, Mr. Racine said.

This is the third time the Vatican has participated in the Biennale: In 2013 and 2015, it was among many participants at the Arsenale, one of the fair’s main venues. And for the 2018 Architecture Biennale, the Vatican built a series of chapels, “for believers and nonbelievers alike,” that can still be visited .

On Sunday, the pope greeted the inmates of the Giudecca prison individually in an inner courtyard. Some gave him flowers, and others pressed envelopes and notes into his hands.

Giovanni Russo, the head of the Department of Penitentiary Administration in the Italian Ministry of Justice, told reporters at a Vatican news conference last month that the women who participated in the project were entitled to unspecified benefits. While the Vatican Pavilion was unique, he said, nearly all of Italy’s 190 penitentiaries had “artistic projects” of some kind or another, involving more than 20,000 volunteers.

It’s not the first time that the inmates at the prison have participated in major art projects. Two years ago, the French artist Pauline Curnier Jardin worked with inmates to make a film and paint a large common room where the women meet visitors twice a week. The walls are now a soft purple, decorated with stylized leaves and figures designed by the inmates during a series of workshops with the artist.

After the Biennale closes in November, the artworks in “With My Eyes” will be removed, Mr. Racine said. But Ms. Curnier Jardin’s soothing additions, which are unrelated to the Biennale, will remain.

After the prison, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Mark’s Square.

Praising Venice’s “enchanting beauty” during the homily, he added that the city was also threatened by issues like climate change, overtourism and the “the fragility of constructions, of cultural heritage, but also of people,” which risk fraying the city’s social fabric. City officials this past week began charging an access fee to the city, hoping to deter day visitors from coming on especially busy days.

Many tourists hoping to visit St. Mark’s Square on Sunday were stymied by dozens of blockades around the area, part of the increased security for the pontiff’s visit.

“I’m not upset,” Julia Suh, visiting from Augusta, Ga., said at one of the blockades while watching the Mass on her cellphone. “I’m very honored — it’s what they’re supposed to do because of heightened security.”

Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo