Pope Opens Visit to Argentina With Lecture on Morality

Pope John Paul II ended an arduous six days in military-ruled Chile on Monday and opened a week’s pilgrimage to civilian-governed Argentina by addressing a modest lecture on political morality to the country’s leaders.

Speaking to President Raul Alfonsin and a broad range of political and government leaders at Argentina’s seat of government, the “Pink House,” the Pope delivered a kindly civics lesson.

“Certainly one of the duties of the state is to pay particular attention to public morality through opportune legislative, administrative and judicial actions which assure a social atmosphere of respect for ethical norms,” the pontiff told them.

John Paul appeared to be referring in his customarily indirect way to a raging controversy between politicians and the Roman Catholic Church here concerning a law permitting divorce, which is up for final approval after the Pope’s visit to Argentina ends next week.

The bill passed the lower house of the overwhelmingly Catholic country’s Congress late last year, arousing an angry church reaction. Approval by the Argentine Senate, which is considered virtually certain, was diplomatically put off to avoid marring the Pope’s visit.

But in an indirect hint that he will not let the divorce controversy be tucked out of sight while he is here, the pontiff warned the government and political leaders that the task of insuring public morality “is particularly urgent in contemporary society.”

Church leaders in Argentina have bitterly accused the Alfonsin government, which succeeded a military-led regime in late 1983, of “vices” and of encouraging a laxity in public morals.

Public Protest

Last week, there was a major public demonstration by anti-church demonstrators protesting the papal visit.

Shortly after his arrival, during an appearance at Buenos Aires’ huge Metropolitan Cathedral, John Paul joked with worshipers, making what many took to be a lighthearted but politically meaningful observation on the city’s hot, humid weather.

“It is warmer here than in Antofagasta, Chile,” John Paul said with a chuckle that drew a rousing laugh from his audience. “I say that only as an observation of a climatic nature,” he added, inspiring another laugh from the audience. Many concluded that the Pope was telling them his reception in democratic Argentina was warmer than the stiff welcome he received from what he had characterized as the “dictatorial” regime of Chile’s strongman, President Augusto Pinochet.

The Chile visit, which concluded with an outdoor Mass in the bleak, northern-desert city of Antofagasta on Monday morning, was marred by a bloody clash between police and anti-government demonstrators during a papal Mass in Santiago on Friday and by smaller clashes near other papal events.

As John Paul prepared to board his chartered jet to fly from Antofagasta to Buenos Aires, the uniformed Gen. Pinochet committed a minor breach of protocol that raised eyebrows in the papal entourage but was shrugged off as of no consequence by the Pope’s spokesman.

Pinochet, who had notified the Vatican that he would not try to take political advantage of the papal visit by clinging to the Pope’s coattails, had advised the pontiff’s planners that he would merely appear at the airport departure ceremony but not make a speech.

Punctilio Violated

Instead, however, the military ruler waited until the Pope had finished his goodby address, then stepped to a microphone and delivered a brief unscheduled speech. Under rules of diplomatic protocol, a visiting head of state such as the Pope is always allowed the last word, and if his host wishes to talk, his address must precede that of the visitor.

Pinochet’s remarks were relatively benign, referring only tangentially to the harsh controls he has stated are necessary to defeat Communist extremists in Chile.

“Holy Father,” he told the Pope, “the task which we are confronting--and upon whose success depend such decisive realities and values as sovereignty and national existence--demands a supreme effort of all our potential.”