John Paul Arrives in Kenya, Will Preside at Church Congress

Pope John Paul II, nearing the end of a seven-country tour of Africa, arrived here Friday to a greeting of chants, hymns and tribal drums.

He will preside here over the 43rd International Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church, an every-four-year meeting of churchmen from around the world. It was begun in the late 1800s to celebrate the church’s sacraments and compare notes on church problems.

Among the hundreds of Roman Catholic church people in attendance at the Eucharistic Congress are Mother Teresa of India and clergymen from a variety of other countries, including the United States.

One of them, Father James P. Robinson, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, said the principal interest of the churchmen attending the Congress, aside from the Pope’s presence there, is the Pope’s attitude toward the “Africanization” of the church on this continent.

The pontiff told churchmen and government officials who met him at the airport that he was delighted to be making his second papal visit to Kenya and that he intends to deliver a message “in a special way to the families, the backbone of your society.”