Pope Considers Visit to Denver a Success : World Youth Day: Vatican hopes trip ends strained relations with United States.

Pope John Paul II called his visit to the United States last week a success, and Vatican officials said they hoped it marked an end to strained relations with Washington over U.S. policy in Somalia and the Gulf War.

The Pope said Wednesday that he found it particularly interesting that the young people who attended the World Youth Day celebrations in Denver “showed a deep knowledge about the presence of God in their lives.”

“They proclaimed their identity as Catholics and the desire to build human relations based on the values in their Gospel,” John Paul said, summing up the highlights of an eight-day trip to Jamaica, Mexico and the United States.

He spoke at his general audience, a weekly public appearance.

The Polish-born Pope and former President Ronald Reagan had built a close relationship based on their mutual hostility toward the Communist-led governments in the former Soviet bloc.

But strains between the Vatican and Washington developed over the U.S.-led attack on Iraq after its occupation of Kuwait. More recently, the Vatican accused the United States of using excessive force and forgetting the humanitarian aims of its mission in Somalia.

Vatican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they hoped that the pontiff’s U.S. visit meant that period was behind them.

One Vatican official also said the Vatican hopes that the Clinton Administration will be open to allowing the church to assert its moral authority in the world.

The official said Clinton asked a number of questions about the Pope’s views during the meeting with John Paul in Denver last Thursday.

The White House said Clinton encouraged the Vatican in its move toward establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

Although talks have been going on for about a year, there has been no report of major progress, and the Vatican may be reluctant to move forward and possibly upset progress in the Middle East peace talks.

More than 160,000 youths, the majority from the United States, attended World Youth Day. The four-day Roman Catholic extravaganza concluded Sunday with a public Mass at a state park attended by 350,000.

About 20,000 participants collapsed from the sweltering heat during last weekend’s events, which included a 14-mile trek from Denver to Cherry Creek State Park.

Two people died, including a 31-year-old Spanish woman who came to see the Pope at the outdoor Mass. She fell ill from heat stress and died of a heart attack Tuesday morning, hospital officials said Wednesday.

A 61-year-old Denver man died from a heart attack Saturday night after collapsing during a prayer vigil.