Jackson Urges Pope to Visit South Africa

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson urged Pope John Paul II on Thursday to visit South Africa to help “bring about a more just society.”

In a private audience, Jackson said, he asked the Pope to take a strong stand against apartheid, South Africa’s system of legal separation of blacks and whites.

“We appealed to him to consider the same type of action as he did in Poland,” Jackson said, referring to the pontiff’s 1979 visit to his native country that some observers credit with helping to liberalize Poland and create the now-banned Solidarity independent trade union.

“His presence there would serve to inspire people and bring about a more just society,” Jackson said.

“The Pope’s position on apartheid and his consideration of going there would have a most profound impact in mobilizing the moral forces of the world” and would “challenge governments on their relations with such an oppressive and immoral system.”

Jackson said that he was not at liberty to comment directly on the Pope’s response but said that John Paul was “gracious and hospitable.”

“We are gratified at his concern and await his appropriate response at a time he deems feasible,” Jackson added.

John Paul, the most widely traveled pontiff in history, has never included South Africa in his official travels.

Jackson was accompanied to what he described as a “20- to 30-minute session” with the Pope by his three sons, Jonathan, Jesse Jr., and Yusef, and by New York’s Auxiliary Bishop Emerson Moore, a native of Harlem, who was invited by Jackson to escort him to see the pontiff.

Besides the apartheid issue, Jackson said that he raised four other concerns with the pontiff: the drought-stricken nations of Africa; the U.S. economic system, which he said favors the rich over the poor; peace and justice in Central America, and the need for nuclear disarmament.

Jackson said that on Central America, he told the Pope that the citizens of Nicaragua “must not be victims of terror manuals” such as that prepared last year for Nicaraguan rebels by employees of the CIA. Instead, Jackson said, “Third World nations fighting for self-determination must be given a chance.”

Speaking to reporters, Jackson was asked if he intends to fly to the Mideast to try to secure the freedom of three Americans who disappeared on separate occasions last year in Beirut and are believed to be held prisoner by Shia Muslim groups.

Jackson said that the families of the three have asked for his help but that he and his aides have not yet determined precisely who may be holding them and that therefore “it is not feasible to go to Lebanon or Syria” at present.

Jackson said his party will fly from Rome to London to meet anti-apartheid groups there before deciding whether to travel to South Africa.

He said that he holds a South African visa that is valid for the next 10 days but that he has requested an extension so that his visit can coincide with the Feb. 4 installation of Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, as Anglican bishop of Johannesburg.

Jackson, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president last year, is here as chairman of the Rainbow Coalition, the organization he founded to press for improvement of the economic condition of minority groups.