The jet-age Pope

Pope Paul comes to the South West Pacific in late November and will stay in Sydney for three or four days.

He comes not as a tourist to see a part of the world new to him, nor even to be the centre of a display of triumphalism in mass demonstrations of Catholicism. He will not be here to be entertained by state leaders at banquets or to be shown over hydro-electric schemes or stud farms.

He comes to be with the people. The vicar of Christ and the head of the Christian people comes ... to give guidance, to stimulate lagging zeal, to revive faith that may have become dormant, to deepen attachment to all that is noble, and, above all, to the person of Jesus Christ.

He will meet our bishops and some people; he will give the blessing of his presence to those lucky enough to see him and to all those in the countries over which he travels and which are represented at Sydney.

This will be the ninth journey the Pope has made out of Italy. None was more than four days. This could well be ten.   

The Editor (Fr Maurice Mulcahy SM),
October 1970