PERTH, WA: February 1, 1990
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Holy Spirit be with you... ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT TO AFRICA: Asked by reporters what he would tell Gorbachev at this delicate moment in Soviet history, the pope replied: "If I could say it in religious terms, I would wish him above all the gift of the Holy Spirit,
which is the gift of wise counsel." The Church's response is above all prayer — a response that is appreciated by Gorbachev himself, the pope said. He then related an anecdote about the Soviet leader.
"I think Ican say this without betraying any personal secrets," he said. Gorbachev, he continued, told him during their meeting at the Vatican that he "was very pleased with the pope's prayers", "He said prayer was
certainly a sign of spiritual order, spiritual values, and that we have great need of these values," Pope John Paul said. Among the 50 journalists travelling with the pope on his sixth pastoral visit to Africa was a reporter for the
Soviet magazine Trud (Work) — the first Soviet journalist to accompany a papal trip. He asked the pope to comment on the recent violence between Christian Armenians and Muslim Azeris in Soviet
R uch man, CAPE VERDE never reach this univerISLANDS: Pope John sal destination without Paul said his eight-day .the indispensable collabjourney through a pov- oration of the internaerty stricken belt of tional community," he Africa was in order to said. present "to the rich all On the plane trip from the needs of the poor" Rome the same day, the and to ensure that the pope emphasised that Third World is not Africa risks being forgot"abandoned by deve- ten as aid and attention loped nations". shifts to the new democCape Verde, a former racies in Eastern Europe. Portuguese colony off The pope insisted that Africa's Atlantic Coast, developed countries has an annual per capita "cannot abandon their income of about $400 common and current and has been beset by responsibility for the decades of drought, food problems of the Third shortages and massive World. For this reason, I emigration. thank providence that Still, the group of 15 this journey is taking me islands was the "wealth- precisely to Africa, the iest" country on the countries of the Sahel". pope's trip, • vhich was He said he and the also to take him to Vatican could be called Guinea, Bissau, Mali, "allies" of Africa Burkina Faso and Chad. "because we must presThe pope said it was ent to the rich all the "providential" that he needs of the poor. We was back in Africa for the must press for concrete sixth time, especially solutions". while international The problems are there attention was turning to be seen, he said, and toward Eastern Europe. added: "How can one not The visit was a chance, cry out in certain he said, to remind the situations?" world of those living in misery. Greeting civil and religious leaders at the Praia airport, the pope called for a "solidarity that includes all people and responds first to the needs of the worst-off". "The good things of this world were meant for all people, and they will
THIRD WORLD FULL OF THEM
Cape Verde was the and moral role in Cape only predominantly Verde's society, but withCatholic stop on the out interfering in politipope's itinerary. cal issues. In speeches, the pope Church-state relations emphasised that the have generally been good Church seeks a social in Cape Verde, but the
one-party government of President Aristides Pereira has been sensitive to criticism,. The editor of a popular Catholic monthly, Terra Nova, was arrested in
Azerbaijan. "These are especially events, painful because they affect not only the Soviet Union as a nation, but especially the peoples who live there." Pope John Paul said. Church The nonpreaches
violence, he said, but it recognises that there are situations in which the right of defence cannot be denied. Self-defence can belong to "an individual, a community or a people when it has suffered violence.. .
BE REMINDED OF THOSE LIVING IN MISERY
1988 and given a suspended sentence for abusing press freedom after the paper published an article on alleged human rights abuses. The pope met privately
with Pereira, whose personal history is tied to the Church's uneven experience in the country. He is the son of a former Catholic priest.
poor man