Pope Asks U.S. to Be Moral Leader : Religion: John Paul meets Clinton in Denver, urging America to return to its roots in crusading for human rights. He stresses anti-abortion views.

Meeting President Clinton for the first time, Pope John Paul II on Thursday urged the United States to rededicate itself to its founding moral principles as leader of an international crusade for human rights and “authentic freedom.”

The private meeting between the young President and the aging Pope was warm, animated and wide-ranging. Their formal remarks on the Pope’s arrival at Stapleton International Airport were complementary, although the pontiff stressed his opposition to abortion in contrast to Clinton’s oft-stated views.

“If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life,” John Paul said. “All the great causes that are yours today will have meaning only to the extent that you guarantee the right to life and protect the human person.”

The Pope made plain that in his view, one of the most self-evident truths is that the strong have the obligation to help the weak.

“The bounty and providence of God has laid an enormous responsibility on the people and the government of the United States. But that burden is also the opportunity for true greatness,” John Paul said. “Together with millions of people around the globe, I share the profound hope that in the present international situation, the United States will spare no effort in advancing authentic freedom and in fostering human rights and solidarity.

“The American people possess the intelligence and will to meet the challenge of rededicating themselves with renewed vigor to fostering the truths on which this country was founded and by which it grew,” the Pope said.

“All Americans, without regard to their religion, are all grateful to you, your holiness, for your moral leadership. For we know you were the force to light the spark of freedom over communism in your native Poland and throughout Eastern Europe,” Clinton said in his welcoming address.

The two men later met alone for 35 minutes at Regis University, a Jesuit school outside Denver, and for another 45 minutes with aides present. The Pope also met Clinton’s wife and daughter, giving the family a Bible.

The President called the meeting “cordial and productive,” saying that it laid the foundation for a close working relationship with the Vatican. The Pope seconded the view en route to a gigantic rally with young people from around the world.

“We shared many values and perspectives,” Clinton said, noting that he and the Pope had addressed social problems that concern them both. They also discussed international topics ranging from Haiti to Somalia to Bosnia, and the move toward full relations between the Vatican and Israel.

“I, like every other person who has ever met him, was profoundly impressed by the depth of his holiness’s conviction, the depth of his faith, and the depth of his commitment to continue on his mission,” Clinton said.

At the airport, Clinton, a Baptist, reminded an approving Pope that he had been taught by nuns in primary school and by Jesuit priests at university.

“You have been an advocate for peace and justice among nations and peoples, a strong voice calling for an end to hatred and hunger everywhere,” said Clinton, who later flew to Oakland for a speech today.

The Pope was in good spirits and seemed restored after a night’s sleep from the rigors of three long and hot days in Jamaica and Mexico that cost him about five pounds. His voice rose in the same cause and cadence as on his last visit to the United States in 1987.

Clinton lauded the Pope for “reminding people blessed with abundance that they must offer special comfort to the poor and the dispossessed . . . . America is a better, strong, more just nation because of the influence that you have had on our world in recent years.”

Responding to Clinton’s initial welcome, John Paul expressed “special joy” in returning to the United States for his third visit.

“May God guide this nation, and keep alive in it--for endless generations to come--the flame of liberty and justice for all. May God bless you all! God bless America!” the Pope said.

John Paul also offered his sympathy to victims of flooding in the Midwest: “I have felt close to the American people in their tragedy and have prayed for the victims. I invoke Almighty God’s strength and comfort upon all who have been affected by this calamity,” he said.

Noting that he had come to preside at his church’s eighth international youth celebration, the Pope told Clinton that young people around the world “are striving for a better world” and deserve to be accepted by world leaders “as true partners in the construction of a more humane, more just, more compassionate world.”

In his visits to more than 100 countries, the Pope said, he has been “deeply moved” by the almost universal conditions of difficulty in which young people grow up and live. “Too many sufferings are visited upon them by natural calamities, famines, epidemics, by economic and political crises, by the atrocities of war,” John Paul told the President.

The Pope also noted his preoccupations with conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, calling for more effective international structures “for maintaining and promoting justice and peace.”

Even in societies of plenty like the United States, John Paul said, young people’s paths are often difficult, afflicted by “a serious moral crisis” as a result of “the breakdown of family values and stability.”

America, he said, must rededicate itself to the “high moral vision” on which it was founded to effectively confront the problems of its children and to endow them “with a robust sense of responsibility to the common good.”

Moral commitments enshrined in American milestones like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution “sustain values which have led people all over the world to look to America with hope and respect,” John Paul said.

Today, the 73-year-old pontiff said, a system of shared moral values must continue to underlie the United States as it moves toward a new century.

“No country, not even the most powerful, can endure if it deprives its own children of this essential good. Respect for the dignity and worth of every person, integrity and responsibility as well as understanding, compassion and solidarity toward others, survive only if they are passed on in families, in schools and through the communications media.”

In his remarks, Clinton underlined his support for the social mission of the Catholic church, quoting a line from the inaugural address of President John F. Kennedy: “We must always remember that here on earth God’s work must be our own.”

Reminding the airport crowd of his departing remarks when he last left the United States in 1987, John Paul said: “The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones. The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves.”

That last phrase is Vatican-speak for the church’s opposition to abortion. Clinton is an abortion rights advocate.

John Paul returned to the abortion issue in a human-rights overview that was part of his remarks following the meeting with Clinton.

“The inalienable dignity of every human being and the rights which flow from that dignity--in the first place, the right to life and the defense of life--as well as the well-being and full human development of individuals and peoples are at the heart of the church’s message and action in the world,” John Paul said.

In greeting the cheering young crowd at Mile High Stadium, the Pope stuck close to the theme of a World Youth Day he last visited in Czestochowa, Poland, in 1991.

“We come to Denver as pilgrims,” John Paul said. “Pilgrims set out for a destination. In our case it is not so much a place or a shrine that we seek to honor. Ours is a pilgrimage to a modern city, a symbolic destination: the metropolis is the place which determines the lifestyle and the history of a large part of the human family at the end of the 20th Century.”

Hours earlier, the Pope arrived at the stadium, 90,000 young people had begun streaming into the stadium, their spirits not dampened by the occasional rain. Lightning storms illuminated the leaden skies as chains of young people snaked down the aisles to the field level.

Some of them unfurled their national flags and held them high for others to pass beneath. Others started “the Wave” in a scene reminiscent of Dodger Stadium. And several times, they stomped their feet in turn, sending a sonic wave around the stadium.

In between, the crowd watched a huge screen, cheering when live footage of the Pope at Regis University was shown, booing when Clinton appeared.

Times religion writer Larry Stammer in Denver contributed to this story.