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American Morning

Vatican Celebration

Aired October 16, 2003 - 07:19   ET

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

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


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A picture perfect day from the Vatican today, where Pope John Paul II celebrates his 25th anniversary as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Only three other predecessors have ever reached that had milestone.
The pope today is expected to preside over a very special mass with pilgrims and cardinals from around the world attending in St. Peter's Square. And that, too, is where we find our old friend, Paula Zahn.

Good afternoon, Paula, once again from Vatican City.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. It is a spectacular day. It couldn't be, I don't think, a more beautiful fall day to mark these 25th anniversary celebrations.

I wanted to give you a sense of where I'm standing right now in St. Peter's Square to give you an idea of how this mass will unfold a little bit later today, about six hours from now. As you look over my left shoulder, you will see the celebrations unfold at the base of the steps to St. Peter's. This will be the exact time that John Paul became pope just 25 years ago.

Now, if this square fills up, and it is expected to, you will see probably some 250,000 people here also honoring the pope.

Today, of course, is about celebrating the extraordinary man, his extraordinary papacy. After all, as many of you know, he is the most widely-traveled pope in history, the first pope to visit the White House, the first pope to visit a synagogue. But many historians believe his greatest achievement is the fact that they believe he played a critical role in bringing an...

HEMMER: All right, that's a bit of a problem there, if we can't get the microphone working properly. Paula, if you're still there, we'll try and hang with you a second here. If not, our apologies and our regrets for our viewers.

Paula, you're back now. Apologize about that. I think we lost a bit of a cable there.

ZAHN: Once again, the critical question that we're going to be exploring today is the issue of the pope's health. He has his good days. He has his bad days. He suffers from Parkinson's disease, and even Cardinal McCarrick (ph) of Washington, D.C., who I interviewed two days ago in Rome, concedes he's a very frail man, a sick man. And we will all be looking to the pope's homily a little bit later on today to gauge how he wants to shape his legacy and perhaps get some more clues as to his health.

Right now, I want to introduce to you Janet Honek, who is one of the many Americans who has come here to mark this historic day.

Good of you to join us.

JANET HONEK, ATTENDING CELEBRATION: Thank you, Paula. I enjoy being here.

ZAHN: Explain to us why it is so important for you to be here today.

HONEK: This has been a very powerful trip. We came here on a pilgrimage from California, Virginia, different points. And to be here in the sacred place where we have our ancestors, and then the pope has done incredible things on bringing the people into the church and making it meaningful, bringing it back into our vernacular, just really giving us much more participation the way it used to be.

ZAHN: You've been planning this for a long time, haven't you?

HONEK: Oh, several months we've been planning it, yes.

ZAHN: Well, we appreciate your joining us this morning...

HONEK: Thank you.

ZAHN: ... to give us a better idea of some of the joy we're going to be witnessing later today.

HONEK: Oh, thank you.

ZAHN: Best of luck. You're an early bird. It looks like you're not going to have any problem finding a space here. You're actually going to get to see the mass, and, of course, if you're not lucky enough to be standing here in St. Peter's Square with us, you can join us at 5:45 Eastern Time, which is when our live coverage will begin of this historic day.

Back now to Bill in New York.

HEMMER: All right, Paula, looking forward to it. Paula Zahn in St. Peter's Square there in Vatican City.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired October 16, 2003 - 07:19   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A picture perfect day from the Vatican today, where Pope John Paul II celebrates his 25th anniversary as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Only three other predecessors have ever reached that had milestone.
The pope today is expected to preside over a very special mass with pilgrims and cardinals from around the world attending in St. Peter's Square. And that, too, is where we find our old friend, Paula Zahn.

Good afternoon, Paula, once again from Vatican City.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. It is a spectacular day. It couldn't be, I don't think, a more beautiful fall day to mark these 25th anniversary celebrations.

I wanted to give you a sense of where I'm standing right now in St. Peter's Square to give you an idea of how this mass will unfold a little bit later today, about six hours from now. As you look over my left shoulder, you will see the celebrations unfold at the base of the steps to St. Peter's. This will be the exact time that John Paul became pope just 25 years ago.

Now, if this square fills up, and it is expected to, you will see probably some 250,000 people here also honoring the pope.

Today, of course, is about celebrating the extraordinary man, his extraordinary papacy. After all, as many of you know, he is the most widely-traveled pope in history, the first pope to visit the White House, the first pope to visit a synagogue. But many historians believe his greatest achievement is the fact that they believe he played a critical role in bringing an...

HEMMER: All right, that's a bit of a problem there, if we can't get the microphone working properly. Paula, if you're still there, we'll try and hang with you a second here. If not, our apologies and our regrets for our viewers.

Paula, you're back now. Apologize about that. I think we lost a bit of a cable there.

ZAHN: Once again, the critical question that we're going to be exploring today is the issue of the pope's health. He has his good days. He has his bad days. He suffers from Parkinson's disease, and even Cardinal McCarrick (ph) of Washington, D.C., who I interviewed two days ago in Rome, concedes he's a very frail man, a sick man. And we will all be looking to the pope's homily a little bit later on today to gauge how he wants to shape his legacy and perhaps get some more clues as to his health.

Right now, I want to introduce to you Janet Honek, who is one of the many Americans who has come here to mark this historic day.

Good of you to join us.

JANET HONEK, ATTENDING CELEBRATION: Thank you, Paula. I enjoy being here.

ZAHN: Explain to us why it is so important for you to be here today.

HONEK: This has been a very powerful trip. We came here on a pilgrimage from California, Virginia, different points. And to be here in the sacred place where we have our ancestors, and then the pope has done incredible things on bringing the people into the church and making it meaningful, bringing it back into our vernacular, just really giving us much more participation the way it used to be.

ZAHN: You've been planning this for a long time, haven't you?

HONEK: Oh, several months we've been planning it, yes.

ZAHN: Well, we appreciate your joining us this morning...

HONEK: Thank you.

ZAHN: ... to give us a better idea of some of the joy we're going to be witnessing later today.

HONEK: Oh, thank you.

ZAHN: Best of luck. You're an early bird. It looks like you're not going to have any problem finding a space here. You're actually going to get to see the mass, and, of course, if you're not lucky enough to be standing here in St. Peter's Square with us, you can join us at 5:45 Eastern Time, which is when our live coverage will begin of this historic day.

Back now to Bill in New York.

HEMMER: All right, Paula, looking forward to it. Paula Zahn in St. Peter's Square there in Vatican City.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.