POPE IN U.S.: I WISH TO ENCOURAGE NEW SENSE OF SOLIDARITY

VATICAN CITY, JAN 26, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father arrived at St. Louis' Lambert International Airport this afternoon at 1 p.m. local time, and was welcomed by civil and religious authorities, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, whom he has met on three previous occasions.

In his speech in English, the Pope recalled that the city's name "will be forever linked to the first transatlantic flight and to the immense human endeavor and daring behind the name, the 'Spirit of St. Louis'." As well, he said, the Dred Scott case was heard in St. Louis, in which the U.S. Supreme Court "subsequently declared an entire class of human beings - people of African descent - outside the boundaries of the national community and the Constitution's protection. After untold suffering and with enormous effort, that situation has, at least in part, been reversed."

"America faces a similar time of trial today," continued the pontiff. "Today the conflict is between a culture that affirms, cherishes and celebrates the gift of life, and a culture that seeks to declare entire groups of human beings - the unborn, the terminally ill, the handicapped, and others considered 'unuseful' - to be outside the boundaries of legal protection."

"My fervent prayer," he avowed, "is that ... America will resist the culture of death and choose to stand steadfastly on the side of life. To choose life ... involves rejecting every form of violence," including poverty, hunger, armed conflict, "the violence of particularly abhorrent weapons such as anti-personnel mines," drug trafficking and racism.

"Only a higher moral vision can motivate the choice for life," John Paul II stated. "And the values underlying that vision will greatly depend on whether the nation continues to honor and revere the family as the basic unity of society."

He thanked "the American people for the countless works of human goodness and solidarity" which characterize them, and entreated them: "Open wide your hearts to the ever increasing plight and urgent needs for our less fortunate brothers and sisters throughout the world."

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