{UAH} Pope addresses 200,000 at Angelus in St Peter's Square

The weather was marvelous this Sunday in Rome and the great

Vatican museums were to be free entry to all, and so vast crowds

crammed St Peter's Square for the Sunday midday Angelus prayer

presided by the Pope from the window of his official study. There were indeed

over 200,000 people in the Square. Pope Francis in line with the day's gospel

advised the crowds to read St John Chapter 9 and contemplate on the story of

that blind person whose sight Christ restored, and he emphasized on the great sense of the text as a remedy to help Christians to get rid of any inner blindness

that would deprive them the holy light brought to mankind by Christ..Of course the

many examples he gave drew cheers from the entire assembly comprised of pilgrims from all continents and from every part of Rome and Italy, including a big

group of Italian army officers who walked from central Italy to the Vatican in a bid 

to express their solidarity to all efforts the Holy Pontiff has taken in order to promote peace in the world.

The down-to-earth peace-loving Pope has been promoted to world celebrity thanks to his candid frankness on world issues for which he openly appeals for

immediate solution! It's this kind of stand that has turned him into a first class

global leader to whom crowds run and for whom heads of state queue for an 

audience. Heavy showers on Rome last Wednesday didn't in any case prevent close to 100,000 pilgrims from attending his weekly public audience, just as the other Sunday the closure of main streets in the Eternal City due to the Rome marathon to be run that afternoon hardly ever made any negative effect to the more

that 150,000 pilgrims that turned up for the Angelus!

As for the heads of state, he saw three of them this week and the key one was USA's President Barack Obama who qualifies himself an admirer of Pope Francis

whom he praises for his openness! Barack Obama was driven to the Vatican in an endless procession of cars and was very warmly received by the Pope and his entourage. Pope Francis very cordially shook Obama's hand and both men wore a very joly mood. The meeting lasted 50 minutes. The first 15 minutes were devoted on the head to head matters interesting the two great leaders. Then for the rest official interpreters were ushered in to help the dialogue stick accurately on the serious global issues which included underdevelopment, world conflict, world political disorder, the exploitation of the poor by the rich, etc... The two men were more or less on the same wavelength for most of the time. And Obama even promised to open a fruitful dialogue with the USA Catholic Episcopal Conference in order to try an understanding with them on abortion, contraception, and the health programmes, etc.. In general Obama was very happy to meet the Pope and many observers agree that he needed the Pope more than anyone else as the meet was naturally to heighten his prestige among his fellow citizens in a country where Pope Francis's global popularity rate runs at over 75%! 

The great encounter between the first Pope from the Americas and the American President ended with the exchange of gifts. Obama on receiving an important document from the Pope amused the entire assembly around when he stated that he would read it in his Oval Office at a moment when he would be in a bad temper and the document would help quash away the anger!

Having already met Russia's Putin and now USA's Obama there is tendency for the two countries to move very steadily towards a peaceful settlement in regard with the current events in Russia. 

Pope Francis is a very dynamic spiritual leader and there is a lot of activity in his midst. A few days ago he received the entire episcopal conference from Madagascar and streams of dignitaries from all over the globe flock his office!

His plans to improve things at the Vatican are sailing through very successfully and the finances are now happily smiling at him. Other reforms will also get through and he won't let down the Church which chose him to lead it. Next month, April 28 are the two great canonizations bringing to official sainthood the two great Popes who have left an indellible mark on the entire world history. Preparations for John Paul II

and John XXIII's canonizations are in full swing. The City of Rome continues to point to the figure of five million pilgrims as the numbers that will be around for the ceremony! Hundreds of thousands of them will come from Poland. And a number of them are said to have already started moving to Rome on foot Tens of thousands will come from France and already strong French teams are in Rome to

phase out infrastructural programmes that will enable the French pilgrims  have a commendable stay. Entire provinces of Northern Italy will pour in for John XXIII. 

Foreign countries will be represented in very tremendous numbers and probably will be allotted seats in St Peter's Square. Very many people would love to admire the presence of African pilgrims, and who will indeed turn up in great numbers.

Except for special guests and those with chance, St Peter's Square will be difficult

to access, and therefore millions will follow the ceremonies on maxi-screens to be erected all over the city. 

Dr G.H. Kkolokolo  ( Paris / France )