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CNN Live Today

Pope Heads for Guatemala

Aired July 29, 2002 - 12:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Pope John Paul II is flying to Guatemala this hour, having taken off from Toronto just about hour and a half ago. But from all indications, the pontiff's weeklong visit to Canada was a big success.
And CNN's Frank Buckley gives us chapter and verse on that. Hi, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra. Certainly a positive visit for the pope in terms of the positive pictures that were sent out across the globe for the last week. The pope being embraced by hundreds of thousands of young people here for World Youth Day activities. Positive pictures until the end. The pope appearing at Pearson International Airport, using a platform to get around, not making any remarks. But once again surprising everyone when he walked up the ramp onto the TACA aircraft that is taking him to Guatemala and then on to Mexico City. You might have heard that he surprised everyone upon his arrival here in Toronto when he walked down the ramp. He was supposed to use a hydraulic lift to get on and off that airplane. Inside that aircraft, the pope has a first class seat, as you might imagine, but nothing out of the ordinary, no bed or anything like that. In the back of that aircraft, dozens of members of the news media, including CNN's Jim Bittermann who are traveling with the pope. The pontiff was, as we put it, wheels up at about 11:58 local time. It is a 5 hour and 15 minute flight time to Guatemala City. Once there, he will canonize a saint. He will be doing the same in Mexico City. He will be spending three days in both Guatemala and Mexico City, and returning to Rome on Thursday.

Here in Toronto, some 800,000 people attended the final mass with the pope at Downsview Park, an outdoor mass. They were battered by some pretty difficult weather conditions, rain and wind, and at that mass, the pope finally, for the first time, spoke publicly about the sex abuse crisis that has rocked the church, and especially in the U.S. during the past several months. The pope saying that some priests who have harmed young people and the vulnerable have filled everyone with what he called a sense of sadness and shame. But so far, survivors of sex abuse are saying that they feel as if the pope did not go far enough. They were looking for an apology or a meeting with the pope and they got neither -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Frank, why is that? What are his closest allies telling you, telling reporters, what is the reasoning behind that?

BUCKLEY: Well, the Vatican has always taken the position that it doesn't to local political pressures or to any sorts of pressures. In fact, people -- especially the Vatican press corps were quite surprised that the pope mentioned this at all in his final mass. We weren't expecting anything like that during the week. There was no indication given, really, until that morning that there might be some mention of this.

The pope has talked about this in the past. This was the first time he talked about it publicly though. He has talked to the U.S. cardinals who came to meet with him. He also talked about it in a letter, pre-Easter letter that was sent to priests. So it is not as if he has avoided the issue completely, but he hasn't talked publicly about this in the past, and Sunday was the first time he has done that.

PHILLIPS: Well, Frank, I think one of the things that surprised me the most, all the young people, the tears, the chants, I think at one point, I don't know if you were there, they were chanting, "The pope is young, the pope is young!" He is like a super hero.

BUCKLEY: He really is. He is quite an icon to the group of young Catholics that were here. I was there for that chanting, and they were responding to the pontiff, the 82-year-old pope, who had said, "the pope is old." And they all started chanting back, "the pope is young, the pope is young!" These are the most fiercely loyal and faithful of the faithful. They came from all over the globe, 170 different nations. It was really quite something to see how uplifted they were to see the pope, many of them breaking down in tears just to see the sight of the pope in the "pope-mobile" as it was passed by.

PHILLIPS: Frank Buckley, thank you so much.

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