Pope Planning 8-Day Visit to Mexico in May

Pope John Paul II will use Mexico City as a springboard for flying trips around the country when he makes his second pastoral visit to Mexico in May, the Vatican announced Wednesday.

John Paul’s return to Mexico, the country where he made the maiden voyage of his pilgrim papacy in 1979, will begin May 6 and last eight grueling days through 10 cities until May 13. The Pope will then spend one night on the Caribbean island of Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles, before returning to the Vatican on May 14.

The 47th foreign trip of John Paul’s papacy, which will end four days before his 70th birthday, comes at a time of warming relations between the Vatican and a country where, under the post-revolution 1917 constitution, religion is subject to state control.

With revolutionary hostilities toward the church muted today in Mexico, which is 96% Catholic, quiet talks are under way to renew official ties between the Vatican and the Mexican government. At present, Mexico is represented at the Vatican by a personal envoy of the president.

The Mexican visit, which will come after a papal weekend in Czechoslovakia on April 21-22, will follow the recent practice of using the capital as a base for daylong visits to outlying dioceses, Vatican planners say. John Paul will sleep every night except one in Mexico City, but his travels will take him the length and breadth of the country, according to the Vatican’s trip outline.

On May 6, he will travel from Rome to Mexico City and probably visit Chalco, a poor suburb and the site of a major shrine. On May 7, he flies to Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, then returns to the capital. On May 8, he goes to Aguascalientes, in central Mexico, and the nearby city of San Juan de los Lagos, in Jalisco state.

Om May 9, John Paul journeys to Durango and remains there overnight, visiting the northern cities of Chihuahua and Monterrey on May 10 before returning to the capital that night. On May 11, he goes to Tuxtla, near the Guatemalan border, and then to Villahermosa in the southern state of Tabasco.

On May 12, his last full day in Mexico, John Paul again travels north, to Zacatecas. After final ceremonies May 13 in Mexico City, he flies to Willemstad, capital of the Dutch-speaking island of Curacao off the coast of Venezuela, for an overnight stay. He returns to the Vatican on May 14.

After Mexico, history’s most traveled Pope has two further trips scheduled this year. On May 25, he goes to the Mediterranean island of Malta for a weekend visit. In September, he makes his second 1990 trip to Africa.