Guatemala Rolls Out Carpet as Pope Returns After 13 Years

The people of Guatemala exuberantly welcomed Pope John Paul II on Monday, with ephemeral carpets of colored sawdust and flower petals covering his route through the capital’s streets. Thousands crowded into the main square to receive his blessing.

“I come as a pilgrim of love and hope,” the pontiff said upon arriving for his first visit to Central America in 13 years. “Today we see on the horizon the hope of peace. . . . I raise my voice to urge a true peace, with the spirit of understanding and, above all, dignity for all people.”

In addition to Guatemala, where peace negotiations are underway to end a 35-year guerrilla war, he will visit El Salvador and Nicaragua, which ended their civil wars in recent years, before moving on to Venezuela.

The pope was greeted warmly at the airport here by Guatemala’s new president, Alvaro Arzu, in striking contrast to the almost hostile reception he received in 1983 from Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, a Protestant who had become president as a result of a coup a year earlier.

“We feel great hope and gratitude that Your Holiness, with a message of peace, has wanted to visit Guatemala, to sanctify with your presence the effort of all our people to overcome our divisions and conflicts,” Arzu said.

But the region’s potential for continuing violence was underlined Sunday when bodyguards protecting Arzu shot and killed a 24-year-old milkman they said tried to run down the president.

Because of concerns about his safety, security for the 75-year-old pope will be tight. In addition, to compensate for his recent illness, his schedule will include extended rest periods.

On his first stop in Guatemala City, John Paul was greeted with miles of elaborately designed sawdust-and-petal carpets, a display usually reserved for Easter Week.

Dozens of organizations and families each took responsibility for designing and creating a few yards of the carpeting that covered the pope’s route from the airport to the Vatican Embassy and then to the main square and the National Palace downtown, where he met with Arzu for 20 minutes, then blessed the crowd from the steps of the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Earlier in the day, Eleonora Gaitan’s family rushed to finish the carpet it was assigned in the section of the parade route commemorating the Christ of Esquipulas, a 400-year-old wooden carving of a black Jesus said to work miracles. The pope is scheduled to visit the figure today.

“We have been working on this for two months,” said Gaitan, helping her 8-year-old nephew, Mario, set up the wooden frame that keeps the border straight.