Luxembourg Gives Pontiff a Warm Welcome

In sharp contrast to the open antagonism that confronted him in the religiously divided Netherlands, Pope John Paul II was met with warmth and enthusiasm Wednesday as he took his pilgrimage to tiny Luxembourg.

Thousands of this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country’s 366,000 citizens gathered along the route of his motorcade to applaud him, and a large number sat through a rainstorm to hear him preach at an outdoor Mass at twilight.

Since beginning the 11-day tour Saturday--his 26th papal trip abroad--the pontiff had been besieged in the Netherlands by outspoken liberal critics within the church and dogged wherever he went by often-insulting gangs of protesters, some of whom tried to pelt his vehicle with rocks, bottles and rotten eggs.

Apparent Relief

Vatican officials in the entourage appeared to be relieved at leaving the Netherlands behind in favor of this small and socially calm country, where public misbehavior is rare. But none would comment, even off the record, on the Pope’s personal reaction to the reception given him by the Dutch.

In another contrast to his Netherlands visit, John Paul stayed clear of controversial issues such as abortion, divorce and a role in the clergy for women--issues regularly raised by Dutch critics--and spoke to the Luxembourgers on broad international and religious themes.

Addressing officials of European Community institutions, he called on the nations of Western Europe to work harder to mobilize food surpluses and use them to benefit the poor and hungry, particularly those in Africa.

‘Destitute Condition’

“Many are struck by the contrast between the destitute condition of populations deprived of food and the accumulation in Europe of food surpluses,” the Pope said. “Given the urgency, could not more be done? Is there the will to do all that is humanly possible to ensure the distribution of the fruits of the earth to those who absolutely need them, in an age when so many other riches are exchanged?”

Urging that Europe’s economic resources be brought to bear on narrowing the disparity between rich and poor nations, he said, “the drama of poverty demands the mobilization of all available energy.”

“The question that must unceasingly be asked is whether everything that is realizable and just has been achieved for a large section of humanity, particularly in Africa, where hunger brings death, where the soil is increasingly unproductive, where the states are held in bondage by their external debt and are left with very little capacity for productive investment,” the Pope said.

‘Always an Evil’

Speaking to rain-dampened worshipers at the outdoor Mass in the nearby iron and steel manufacturing town of Esch-Alzette, John Paul deplored the problem of unemployment that has hit the Luxembourg steel works heavily. “We must never cease to repeat that it is always an evil, particularly when it affects young people,” he told them.

Speaking in Portuguese, Italian and Polish to emigrant workers in the audience, he sympathized with their pain at having to leave their own countries to find work and said that each migrant “takes with him his own face and religious tradition as a precious jewel in his spiritual luggage.”