Pope Keeps Up Tradition of Spanish Steps
AP Online
Dec 08, 2004
Waving from his white popemobile, Pope John Paul II blessed shoppers
and tourists at the foot of the Spanish Steps on Wednesday as he
began his busy holiday schedule with a traditional visit to the
popular square in the heart of historic Rome.
He rode in an open-sided vehicle down narrow Via Condotti, a street
lined with some of Rome’s swankiest shops. John Paul, dressed in a
white robe and a red embroidered stole, sat in an upholstered chair
on a wheeled platform, and in a hoarse voice read a prayer in honor
of the Virgin Mary.
Dec. 8 is the church and Italian national holiday of the Immaculate
Conception, which marks the Roman Catholic dogma that the mother
of Jesus was conceived without original sin. In the morning, he
presided at a two-hour Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the
150th anniversary of the declaration of the dogma.
The pope prayed that Mary would “help us to build a world where the
life of man is always loved and defended, every form of violence is
banned, peace is tenaciously sought by all.”
Thousands of Romans and out-of-towners took a break from gift-buying
on the first official day of the city’s Christmas shopping season to
catch a glimpse of the pope in the square with its towering column
topped by a statue of Mary.
They cheered as the pontiff arrived during an afternoon break in the
rain that had drenched Rome earlier. Mayor Walter Veltroni watched
as John Paul blessed a basket brimming with pink roses that were then
placed at the foot of the column.
Ailing with Parkinson’s disease and hip and knee problems, John Paul
no longer walks or stands during his many public appearances. But
the Vatican’s official schedule of papal ceremonies indicates the
84-year-old pontiff is sticking to the heavy Christmas season schedule
of the last several years.
On Christmas Eve, he will preside over a solemn midnight Mass in
St. Peter’s Basilica. Several years ago he stopped celebrating a late
morning Mass on Christmas Day, but he is scheduled to deliver his
traditional message “Urbi et Orbi” (“to the city and to the world”)
at noon on Dec. 25. He will also lead a service of thanksgiving for
the blessing of 2004 on New Year’s Eve in the basilica.
Earlier Wednesday, the pope said he was praying for the Iraqi people
after militants bombed two churches in Mosul, the latest anti-Christian
violence in the country.
“I express my spiritual closeness to the faithful, shocked by the
attacks,” John Paul said, speaking from his apartment window above
St. Peter’s Square.
He said he was praying that Iraqis “may finally know a time of
reconciliation and peace.”
In coordinated attacks Tuesday, militants bombed an Armenian Catholic
and a Chaldean church in Mosul, injuring three people. Islamic
militants have regularly targeted Iraq’s various ethnic communities,
including the minority Christians.