Roman Catholics: Pope as Pilgrim

Yours is a land of ancient culture, the cradle of great religions, the home of a nation that has sought God with relentless desire. Rarely has this longing for God been expressed with words so full of the spirit of Advent as in your sacred books many centuries before Christ: "From the unreal lead me to the real, from darkness lead me to light, from death lead me to immortality."

—Pope Paul VI in Bombay

We are keen students of Catholic theology. We know the way in which St. Thomas Aquinas reconciled Christian with Aristotelian thought. In the same spirit, your council is now trying to reconcile Christian revelation with contemporary culture.

—India's President Radhakrishnan

The fond, impossible dream of Pope Paul VI, that pioneer of papal travel, is that some day he may go somewhere as a "simple pilgrim." That was how he wanted to style his trip to Bombay last week to attend the 38th International Eucharistic Congress. He envisioned himself meeting and perhaps ministering to the poor, the hungry, the sick. Scorning to charter a plane, he simply bought a first-class ticket (fare: $985.20).

But such a pilgrimage could not be. The Vatican, the Indian government, the relentless exigencies of the press, and even Air India foiled the Pope. The airline closed off part of the first-class compartment, provided a raven-haired stewardess in a striped silk sari, and painted the papal coat of arms on the plane. The Indians, as might have been foreseen, discouraged any extensive visits to the poor as an uncalled-for stress on the country's poverty. The Vatican sent along cardinals and priests and supplied tapes of Handel and Vivaldi to be played on the plane. Photographers crowded the plane, and made part of the trip a chaos of flashbulbs.

A Million Cheer. Thus the pilgrimage grew grand. On hand at Bombay's Santa Cruz airport to meet the Pope were India's diminutive Prime Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri, stately, goateed Moslem Vice President Zakir Hussain (wearing white Congress caps that paired with Paul's white skullcap), and the country's leading industrialist, J.R.D. Tata.

A million frantic Indians turned out to cheer the Pope, shoving and pushing wildly to get a glimpse of him. His white Lincoln Continental convertible took an hour and a half to crawl the 13 miles of highway from the airport to the Eucharistic Congress. Giant signs along the route proclaimed India's welcome: LONG LIVE THE POPE, NO GREATER LOVE HATH ANY MAN, JOY ICE CREAMS WELCOME PAUL VI. A bit jokingly, a brilliant sign all awash in white lights on Marine Drive in Bombay blared: BIRTH CONTROL CENTER FOR SEX HEALTH.

Serving Mankind. The next 21 days were filled with official functions, receptions, prayers at Roman Catholic churches, meetings with Catholic priests and nuns and representatives of India's religious communities—the dominant Hindus, the minority Moslems, Buddhists (see cover), Zoroastrians, non-Catholic Christians. Said the Pope to the religious leaders: "We must come closer together. We must come together with our hearts, in mutual understanding, esteem and love."