Pontiff Ends Visit to Chile With Appeal for Harmony

Pope John Paul II today concluded a stormy six-day visit by telling Chileans that he hopes his trip will be “a stimulus for peace and for living together fraternally.”

The pontiff’s jetliner, a Boeing 737 of the state airline LanChile, took off from the Antofagasta airport bound for Buenos Aires, the last stop on his two-week, three-nation tour of southern South America.

John Paul, who was bid farewell in this northern port by President Augusto Pinochet, said he will pray that Chileans “confront the problems that affect you with a serene and positive spirit, with the will to find solutions in the path of dialogue, of harmony, of solidarity, of justice, of reconciliation and pardon.

“I hope your recollection of my apostolic pilgrimage will be one of a call to hope, an invitation to look upward, a stimulus for peace and living together fraternally,” he said.

‘God Bless Your Steps’

Pinochet, in dress uniform, said in his farewell, “Holy Father, may God bless your steps.”

The Pope arrived at the airport from a horse-race track, where he celebrated Mass for about 200,000 faithful surrounded by the huge dunes of the Atacama Desert.

In his homily, he expressed the desire that God “reconcile the grand Chilean family, overcoming barriers, repairing fractures, defeating animosity and discord with the force of the Christian spirit.”

Earlier today, during a visit to a local jail, John Paul told hundreds of prisoners that he hopes they will soon be free.

In turn, the prisoners at the century-old jail sang a Spanish song called “Messenger of Life” for the pontiff.

‘Christ a Prisoner Too’

The white-robed Pope stood on a platform with local bishops and told the inmates, “Christ was a prisoner too.” He called for improved prison conditions everywhere “to give more dignity to inmates as persons, as children of God.”

John Paul expressed his hope for “a quick return to your homes” for all prisoners.

Among the 300 inmates were thought to be 14 political prisoners arrested for opposing Pinochet’s rightist military regime.