John Paul II ended his grueling four-day tour in Slovakia with beautifying two Christian martyrs of the recent Communist era.
Dressed in bright red and gold vestments, the Pope officiated the mass in the Slovak capital against a backdrop of drab, soviet-style housing units, which church officials described as a "city built without God."
Catholics said they feared this was likely to be the Pope’s last visit to the region, considering the frail health of the Pope, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and finds it difficult to walk.
FRAILTY "INSPIRATION"
But church leaders suggested that the Pope’s frailty also served as an inspiration to many, including the sick. In the words of Slovak Bishop Rudolf Balaz, his visit was precious because he came with "such strain and bearing a cross."
Suffering was a theme at his sermon Sunday, when the 83-year old Polish-born pontiff beatified nun Zdenka Schelingova and Bishop Basil Hopko – Slovaks persecuted by communists in the 1950s, when Slovakia was still part of former Czechoslovakia.
TORTURED AND TRIED
Bishop Hopko was tortured before being tried and convicted of "subversive activities" and contacts with a "foreign power" because of his ties to the Vatican.
Sister Zdenka was tortured and imprisoned for helping persecuted priests escape communism. She was released for medical reasons after three years imprisonment, but died several weeks later. The Pope said the world could be inspired by their faith and perseverance.
"Both shine before us as radiant examples of faithfulness in times of harsh and ruthless religious persecution…" And the pontiff added that "both faced up to an unjust trial and an ignoble condemnation, to torture, humiliation, solitude, death."
POST-COMMUNIST FREEDOM
In recent days the Pope also urged the mainly Catholic Slovaks to use their post-communist freedom wisely, at a time when the Vatican is concerned about a parliamentary decision to allow abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Slovak President Rudolf Schuster vetoed the measure, pending a court decision. The political row comes amid a debate in Slovakia over the role churches should play in society, as the country prepares to join the European Union next year.
The Vatican’s chief organizer for Papal visits, Renato Boccardo, said the pope met Slovakia’s new generation of bishops to help and encourage them to face today’s challenges, following decades of Communism.
MEDIA ROW
"In the few months before the visit of the holy father (the) media spoke against, or in a not positive way, about the churches not only the Catholic church, but about the presence of churches in society," he said.
"I think and I hope that the presence of the holy father (here) will help the public opinion to understand correctly (what means) the presence and the contribution of the church." Yet as the Pope left Slovakia, followers asked it if the frail Pope John Paul should continue to travel.
His papacy, 25 years long next month, has been marked by his globe-trotting. He has visited more than 130 countries on 102 trips, traveling an estimated 1.5 million kilometres–equivalent to going round the world about 30 times or more than three times the distance between the earth and the moon.
