John Paul II, though, was the nation’s guest and a powerful magnet for the 190,000 Roman Catholic youths assembled from around the world. The president was tall, young, vigorous and articulate. The pope was stooped and aged, and his right hand shook uncontrollably as he read a halting speech in thickly accented English. Yet it was the pope who drew repeated cheers and chants of “John Paul II, we love you,” as Clinton graciously awaited his turn to speak. Neither leader could hear the presidential naysayers watching big-screen monitors miles away at Denver’s Civic Center and Mile-High Stadium and booing Clinton. The loudest cheers erupted when John Paul II, with Clinton standing expressionless at his side, urged Americans to “defend life”–a clear reference to abortion which the White House did not expect to hear. “That’s what we believe in,” said Andy Tynon, 18, of Peru, Neb. “If there is anybody in the world who stands up for what he believes in it is the pope.”
In private, however, the president and pope focused on international affairs: the Middle East, Haiti, and especially Bosnia. Their talk, at the Jesuits’ Regis University, lasted more than an hour-longer than expected. The president gave his guest a walking stick carved with angel wings on top and the pope gave Clinton, a serious Southern Baptist, a Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate. Then Clinton flew off to California–and left Denver to the pope. Planned protests fizzled and SWAT teams kept abortion-clinic demonstrators at bay. Frenzy greeted the popemobile at Mile-High Stadium where the young applauded the pope’s complex sentences with energy usually reserved for monosyllabic rock stars.
Everyone wanted a visual piece of the small white figure from Rome. “Pardon me,” said a young woman, tapping a prelate on the shoulder, “would you please take off your miter so we can see?” It was that kind of visit.
