THE PAPAL VISIT : Sanctuary Movement Encouraged by Pope : He Praises ‘Compassion’ for Refugees

Pope John Paul II lent encouragement to the controversial church-based sanctuary movement Sunday by lauding the “great courage and generosity” of those who have given support and aid to Central American refugees.

Preaching in both Spanish and English under a blistering sun in this largely Latino city, the pontiff praised those “who have been doing much on behalf of suffering brothers and sisters arriving from the south.”

“They have sought to show compassion in the face of complex human, social and political realities,” John Paul told a Mass attended by an estimated 275,000 people, the largest crowd that he has yet addressed on his nine-city American pilgrimage, entering its fifth day today.

In contrast to the rather sedate reception that he experienced in previous stops, the pontiff drew larger crowds and was more warmly received as he moved about San Antonio in his glass-box Popemobile, waving cheerfully from an open side window to throngs of cheering people estimated at 325,000 along the 4.6-mile parade route.

The hot weather exacted a toll, however. Hundreds of people collapsed at the outdoor Mass and 22 were hospitalized.

Although the Pope carefully avoided endorsing breaking the law, and did not use the term “sanctuary,” an official in the papal entourage said the movement, in which both Catholics and Protestants have risked federal indictment to shield Central American refugees, was clearly the object of his remarks.

Not Supporting Illegal Action

Father Bruce Nieli, Texas’ Catholic director of evangelization, said the pontiff would not support any illegal activity and was speaking generally of all church groups helping refugees with food, shelter and the legalization process.

Nonetheless, sanctuary leaders took encouragement in John Paul’s words.

Members of the 5-year-old movement have provided safe haven for Central American refugees--mostly from El Salvador and Guatemala--who enter the United States illegally and seek asylum on grounds that they face violence and political retaliation if they are deported to their own countries. The U.S. government generally rejects asylum on the grounds that the refugees immigrated here for economic, not political, reasons.

In a celebrated case last year, eight sanctuary workers, including two Roman Catholic priests and a nun, were convicted in federal court in Tucson of 16 felony counts. All were placed on probation. The Justice Department sent undercover informants with concealed tape recorders into churches to gather evidence for the case.

One of those convicted, the Rev. John M. Fife of Tucson, a Presbyterian minister who co-founded the nationwide movement, Sunday called the Pope’s remarks “very helpful.”

Fife said the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service “will have greater difficulty now with their statements that the sanctuary movement is political and not religious. The Holy Father has made it very clear that the sanctuary movement is based in faith.”

‘Greatest Risk’

Fife predicted that the Pope’s encouragement to sanctuary workers will be especially helpful in Texas, where he said the “greatest risk” and greatest antagonism to the movement exists.

Father Luis Olivares of Los Angeles, pastor of a self-declared refugee sanctuary at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, said he feared that U.S. immigration authorities would put their own interpretation on the Pope’s remarks. “I would assume that they would attempt to limit it to humanitarian work that is clearly legal,” he said.

The Justice Department declined comment in Washington, but Verne Jervis, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said, “As long as people are assisting without breaking the law, we support that.”

400 Sanctuaries Claimed

The government has not prosecuted any additional sanctuary cases since the Tucson conviction, asserting that the movement is in decline. Sanctuary advocates dispute that, claiming that as many as 400 U.S. churches, including 42 in Southern California, have declared themselves sanctuaries, although that does not mean they all have sheltered refugees.

In his remarks, delivered to a heavily Latino audience gathered in 90-degree heat and heavy humidity in a 144-acre open field on the western outskirts of San Antonio, John Paul declared: “This land is a crossroads. . . . standing at the border of two great nations and experiencing both the enrichment and the complications which arise from this circumstance.

“You are thus a symbol and a kind of laboratory, testing America’s commitment to her founding moral principles and human values,” he added, echoing the call for America to live up to its constitutional ideals that he first proclaimed on his arrival in Miami on Thursday.

‘Viva el Papa’

Several times during the Mass, and during the day, the 67-year-old pontiff spoke in Spanish and was hailed by applause and shouts of “Viva el Papa.”

In one touching moment of the Mass, the Pope leaned over and kissed a young girl, Cindy Ramirez, who was among children who brought flowers to the pontiff. Cindy, who wore a long white gown, has lost her hair because of chemotherapy she is undergoing as a cancer treatment.

Although the 2 1/2-hour Mass drew the largest crowd yet to hear John Paul during his visit, it was only a little more than half of original predictions of 500,000. Organizers had expected as many as 150,000 Mexicans to cross the nearby border to see the Pope, but according to border officials only 4,000 actually crossed.

Church officials said many others who had been expected to attend may have been put off by forecasts of massive traffic tie-ups and major medical risks at the Mass site because of excessive heat and limited facilities. Red Cross officials said 500 people were treated at the site for mostly heat-related problems.

Litany of Issues

In a fast-paced day that brought the pontiff from New Orleans to make four major speeches here, John Paul covered a litany of familiar papal issues. Among them, as he has done often in the past, he decried the gap between rich and poor nations as well as that between poverty-stricken people and the wealthy, who he said can suffer “a pitiable form of poverty: the poverty of selfishness.”

Several times during the day he reminded Catholics of the importance of going regularly to confession, a practice increasingly bypassed by many otherwise faithful church members, particularly in northern Europe and North America.

Against Vatican wishes, a sort of ritual absolution of whole congregations has also been substituted in some parishes for the traditional one-on-one personal confession of a parishioner to a priest.

Personal Confession Essential

The pontiff has often made clear that personal confession remains essential except in extraordinary circumstances approved by the church, such as when there are too few priests to physically manage large numbers of individual confessions.

One of the criticisms made by the Vatican against Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen last year when he was temporarily relieved of some of his authority was that he had dispensed mass absolution too readily.

Urging Catholic believers to stick to the letter of church teachings, the pontiff told an almost entirely Latino audience at Our Lady of Guadalupe Plaza that “we cannot invent the faith as we go along. We must receive it in and from the universal community of faith, the church to whom Christ himself has entrusted a teaching office under the guidance of the spirit of truth.”

‘Pick-and-Choose’ Catholics

His use of the phrase “invent the faith” appeared to be meant as a warning to what Vatican officials have called “pick-and-choose” Catholics. Vast numbers of American Catholics, according to recent polls by the Los Angeles Times and others, believe that they can be selective in which church rules to obey and still remain loyal church members.

Earlier in the afternoon, speaking to seminary students and members of religious orders at San Fernando Cathedral, the pontiff underscored his firm belief in the necessity of priestly celibacy.

“Each of you is called to embrace freely a celibate life for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom,” he told them. He also stressed the duty of priests to be obedient to the teaching authority of the church hierarchy.

The Pope concluded his day with a reception for 1,000 Polish-Americans from across Texas, including hundreds from the Texas town of Panna Maria, the first Polish settlement in the United States.

Times staff writers Russell Chandler and Louis Sahagun in San Antonio and John Dart in Los Angeles also contributed to this story.