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CNN Sunday Morning
Pope John Paul II to Deliver Speech
Aired July 28, 2002 - 09:34 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you about 30 minutes ago, the pope has arrived, John Paul II is in Toronto celebrating an outdoor mass there where millions are standing in the rain waiting to hear what he as to say. Also out there in the rain is CNN's Frank Buckley, who is joining us now with the very latest out there -- Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Catherine, I'm cheating, I'm under a tent, so we're not getting rained on here. But yes, the pilgrims who are out in front of the papal stage are, in fact, continuing to experience the elements here.
The pope arriving about a half an hour ago; the pope mobile traveling very slowly through the crowd giving everyone in the audience an opportunity to see the pope up close. We in fact did, just a few moments ago. The pope mobile traveled underneath and just below the media riser here, and many of us went out and looked over and got to see the pope for ourselves as he traveled by, and it was quite an experience.
Joining me again John Allen from the "National Catholic Reporter." John now, tell us -- take us through the steps, what can we expect next.
JOHN ALLEN, "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Well, you know, these papal masses at World Youth there, sort of one-half high school pep rally and one-half religious ceremony. What we've seen so far this morning is the pep rally part -- that is, the pope flying over, unleashing cheers from the crowd, and the long slow turn through the crowd in the pope mobile, giving them some face time so they can share and get excited.
Now, they're making the shift into the mass, which is of course the main Sunday religious celebration for Catholics. So, what's happening is the pope and the other of the cardinals and bishops who will celebrate this mass with him are sort of queuing up in back of the stage, then they will process in a kind of ceremonial fashion onto the stage, and they will have the introductory rites, where the pope will pray a beginning prayer, invite the pilgrims here, and these surely are pilgrims, remember, this is not just a chance to get together in a field, get dirty and get crazy, but it's also a spiritual experience.
They had to hike some five miles to this location. They spent the night in prayer and in quiet. And the idea is here, they're here both to have fun, but also to be spiritual people, to pray, to engage in worship.
So, then the mass will begin. The mass is composed of two components. You have the liturgy of the word, where we will hear readings from then Old Testament, the New Testament, then the gospels. The gospel, of course, today will be the reading from Matthew where he talks about youth being the light of the world and the salt of the earth, which is the theme of this World Youth Day.
And then the pope will then give his homily, and then after that we will have the liturgy of the Eucharist, which is the actual communion service.
But, one of the remarkable things about these papal masses is how efficiently they distribute communion. You might have, up to, as you've said throughout the morning, maybe one million people here today -- it will take them about 15 minutes to hand out communion to all those folks. It's really astonishing to watch that in action.
And then we will have the sort of concluding ceremony. And at the end of the day at noon, the pope will pray what's called the angeles (ph) address, which is a daily prayer at noon that Catholics do.
John Allen with the "National Catholic Reporter" here to give us insight throughout the morning, as we await now the beginning of the mass.
Catherine and Thomas, back to you.
CALLAWAY: Frank, amazing, communion to soon hit or given to a million people in 15 minutes -- we've got to see this, is an unbelievable site, right?
Do we expect to hear the pope address, or do we expect to hear from the pope anything concerning the crisis in the priesthood?
BUCKLEY: Right. Up until now, during this entire week of activities we haven't heard anything, and I'll bring John back in to talk about that for a second, because it's worth noting. Up until now, we haven't heard anything regarding the church abuse crisis in the United States, but we are now getting indications that will, in fact, be addressed.
ALLEN: Yes, coming into this trip with some 55,000 American kids, and 125 U.S. bishops, we had expected this would be part of the subtext of the event. Up to this stage, officially we've heard nothing, but our indications today is that the pope will address it, and in a really surprisingly direct fashion, in the homily he will be giving about midway through this mass.
That will mark the third time since the current sex scandals in the U.S. church broke in January that he's addressed it. The first time, of course, being in his holy Thursday letter to priests, then again in late April, when he brought all the American cardinals to Rome for a special summit on this topic.
BUCKLEY: Will people who cover the Vatican regularly sort of have some discussion about whether or not this was a good idea to address it at all -- why are they addressing it?
ALLEN: Yes, you bet. This is always a difficult decision to make. You know, on the one hand this is a very delicate topic, and you wonder why he would -- he would do it and sort of steal some of the thunder from his own event.
On the other hand, the pressure to say something has been enormous. The pope wants to show himself to be a compassionate pastor, and I think that's why he's addressing it.
BUCKLEY: OK, there you go, Catherine, from John Allen.
CALLAWAY: All right, thank you, Frank. That's CNN's Frank Buckley.
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