The Papal Visit : Be ‘Good Samaritans’ for AIDS Patients, Pope Urges

Pope John Paul II Monday urged Catholic health workers to be compassionate “Good Samaritans” in their treatment of AIDS patients and soberly reaffirmed the church’s firm opposition to artificial procreation and experimenting or tampering with human fetuses.

Following an emotional exchange of hugs and kisses with sick children and their parents at St. Joseph’s Hospital here, the pontiff made his first formal papal reference to AIDS in an address to health workers that focused on modern medical challenges.

“One of these is the present crisis of immense proportions which is that of AIDS and AIDS Related Complex (ARC),” John Paul said, echoing informal remarks on the subject that he made Thursday while flying from Rome to Miami to begin his current 10-day, nine-city pilgrimage. “Besides your professional contribution and your human sensitivities toward all affected by this disease, you are called to show the love and compassion of Christ and his Church . . . you are, individually and collectively, living out the parable of the Good Samaritan.”

But on one of the knottiest ethical issues facing the church and modern medical scientists--the rapid advance of biomedical technology, particularly concerning human reproduction--the Pope firmly repeated the church stricture that “what is technically possible is not for that very reason morally admissible.”

Ignoring a suggestion by the head of the 1,000-institution Catholic Health Assn. of America that the church continue open discussion of ethical dilemmas posed by such developments as technologically assisted human reproduction and genetic engineering, John Paul upheld the Vatican’s flat rejection last March of artificial insemination, embryo and sperm banks, surrogate parenthood and “test tube” technology to produce babies.

President John E. Curley Jr., of the CHA, a $22-billion health care system that is the nation’s largest under a single ownership, told the Pope only moments before that “our ministry may well be placed in jeopardy if it cannot come to terms with” such issues, and politely suggested further discussion.

The tight ethical restrictions limiting certain biotechnological advances were spelled out in a 40-page “Instruction” last March by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the theological watchdog agency of the church. It barred Catholics from initiating any form of procreation not directly resulting from the natural sex act between married partners and called on world governments to pass strict laws concerning abortion, scientific experiments using fetuses and artificial methods of human reproduction. It also ruled out amniocentesis if the resulting knowledge of possible birth defects might inspire a decision to abort the child.

Reproached Questioners

The pontiff had never previously mentioned the subject of AIDS publicly except in response to the questions of reporters when he met with them during his flight to Miami. When one asked if he believed AIDS might be God’s punishment to homosexuals, its most numerous victims, John Paul reproached the questioner, saying, “It is not easy to know the intent of God himself. He is a great mystery, but he is justice, he is mercy, he is love.”

He also said “the church is doing all that is possible to heal and especially prevent the moral background of this disease.” On Monday, the Pope’s official spokesman, Dr. Joaquin Navarro Valls, explained that John Paul was suggesting that strict adherence to church teachings concerning sex would eliminate the transmission of AIDS. The church condemns homosexuality and any form of sexual relations outside of marriage.

Immediately after arriving in Phoenix on Monday, the pontiff began the fifth day of his American journey by visiting sick children, including a terminally ill 15-year-old boy with brain cancer and a 6-year-old girl paralyzed from the neck down when she was struck by a drunk driver.

He also cuddled to his ample chest the 2-pound, 10-ounce figure of Brooke Johnson, born at 1-pound, 5 ounces June 29. The baby’s mother, Debbie Johnson, said as the Pope held her daughter that Brooke “was a miracle from the very beginning.”

‘Live 100 Years’ Among the crowd who gathered at the hospital to greet the Polish pontiff was a group who chanted the refrain of his homeland, “Stolat, Stolat, “ meaning “Live 100 years.”

“It is not so easy to accomplish this, it is wishing to live 100 years on this Earth,” the Pope chuckled, then quipped in a religious mini-message, “but it is possible to live an eternity where there is charity and love.”

In six speeches during the day, John Paul covered a variety of subjects, including praise of the Southwestern landscape in a special greeting to the people of New Mexico which he delivered on a radiotelephone circuit from his chartered TWA jet Shepherd One as it flew over the state en route from San Antonio to Phoenix.

At St. Mary’s Basilica, the oldest Catholic church in Phoenix, the pontiff appealed to Americans to share their wealth with disadvantaged nations. “Avarice,” he said, “is the most evident form of moral underdevelopment . . . as you look with gratitude upon the high standard of living that many of you enjoy, at least in comparison to the rest of the world, may your hearts go out to the less fortunate.

“My appeal to America is for human solidarity throughout this land and far beyond its borders,” he said. “This is the culmination of true progress; this is the measure of true greatness; this is the condition of true and lasting peace for America and for the world!”

As there had been in his previous stops in Miami, Columbia, S.C.; New Orleans and San Antonio, there were scattered minor displays by placard-carrying protesters opposed to the pontiff’s visit. One protester was arrested for carrying a .357-Magnum handgun in a concealed ankle holster after police noticed him standing with an anti-Pope placard near the Phoenix Civic Center building, where the pontiff addressed the Catholic Health Assn. workers. They said the man identified himself as Danny Martinez, 28, a licensed Phoenix private investigator.

Police said they also temporarily confiscated two guns and a knife from spectators but made no arrests because it is legal to carry weapons openly in Arizona and only illegal to conceal them as they said Martinez did.

Once again, the big traffic jams and huge crowds that had been predicted did not materialize. Crowd estimates along the route of the papal motorcade here varied widely, but it appeared there were far fewer than the predicted 500,000 spectators. A police officer who flew over downtown in a helicopter made an estimate of between 30,000 and 100,000, including those gathered at St. Mary’s.

However, at the day’s concluding event, a Mass at Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University in Tempe, every seat was filled and officials estimated the crowd at 75,000.

As in the three other cities in which the pontiff has celebrated Mass--Miami, New Orleans and San Antonio--the ceremony was an elaborately staged event, rich in ritual and symbolism.

Stylized Western Scene

The altar featured an 84-foot-long backdrop of a stylized Western mountain scene with a Phoenix bird, the diocesan symbol, rising from flames in the center. “Western sunset” colors of mauve, violet, yellow and orange were incorporated into the backdrop.

About 75 feet from the altar, a copper-clad cross, 65 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, towered over the football field. A baptismal font, six feet in diameter and ringed with red, yellow, white and pink flowers, was under the cross.

Following John Paul’s 30-minute sermon, which took as its theme the mystery of the triumph of the cross, a group of 25 people, all in wheelchairs and accompanied by Boy Scouts, received the special Sacrament of the Sick around the baptismal font.

The pontiff laid his hands on each and anointed each with oil, saying: “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in His love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

According to Catholic dogma, this sacrament was instituted by Christ to give the sick spiritual aid and strength and to perfect spiritual health, including if necessary the remission of sins.

“I wish I could have been one of the ones that the Pope anointed,” said Mitzi Agredano, a 68-year-old grandmother from Oracle, Ariz., who suffers from arthritis and walks with the help of a cane.

But, she added, she was overjoyed at just being able to attend the service. “At my age, I never expected to see the Pope. And we didn’t get tickets until the last minute,” she said.

A two-hour pre-Mass program featured a variety of singers, musicians and dancers. One pre-Mass speaker, newspaper columnist Erma Bombeck, provided a touch of humor by saying: “This is not the first time Sun Devil Stadium has been offered up to worship.” On football Saturdays, she explained, “it becomes Our Lady of Perpetual Anxiety.”