MEXICO: POPE JOHN PAUL II VISIT FILE

(22 Jan 1999) Natural Sound
Pope John Paul arrives in Mexico on Friday after an absence of almost seven years.
This is the pontiff's fourth visit to the second most Catholic country in the world, his first was shortly after his election as head of the Catholic Church in 1979.
Even though the Pope has aged, he insisted to journalists in an airborne news conference he still had the enthusiasm for travel.
When Pope John Paul II arrived off the plane in 1979 for his first visit to Mexico, the younger healthier pontiff knelt on the ground to kiss the floor.
But, when the pontiff arrives in Mexico this time, Catholics will see a man who has become older and frailer.
(m) Millions lined the street then to see the newly elected leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
It was in 1979, during his first foreign trip as pope, that John Paul II referred to Mexico as "always faithful".
Mexicans loved the plaudit, and it stuck.
In a country where 87 percent of the people identify themselves as Roman Catholic, the pope was a major hit - donning a sombrero at a bullfighting ring and strumming a guitar along with a mariachi band.
Half the world's Catholics live in the Americas.
Mexicans also feel a special closeness to the pope - and the pope to Mexico - because of his devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose image adorns everything from construction sites to government offices.
The Virgin is the patron saint of the country.
The church says the virgin appeared before a Mexican Indian in 1531, called him "son" and left her image on his cloak.
John Paul was the first pontiff to visit her Mexico City shrine in 1979, and in 1992 he dedicated a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica to her.
According to Mexican church officials, it was at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1979 that the pope got the inspiration that has marked his papacy.
The pope will return to the basilica on Saturday to announce the document on church strategy, and to pray again in front of the image of the Virgin Mary.
The Mexican trip will be a fitting goodbye for a pope who has stressed family values throughout his papacy and placed special emphasis on the importance of Latin America for the future of the Roman Catholic Church.
The pope's five day visit to Mexico will not be anywhere near as stressful as his first trip 20 years ago, but it will be just as enthusiastically received .
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