Pope John Paul II will celebrate Mass in Oriole Park at Camden Yards and lead an interfaith parade through the streets of Baltimore, the birthplace of American Catholicism, on his fourth extended visit to the United States in October.
The pontiff will have dual roles on his three-day visit, acting as international diplomat when he addresses the United Nations as Vatican head, and as spiritual leader when he meets the faithful at stadium-size events in New York, New Jersey and Baltimore.
Nearly 60 million Americans are Catholics, about 23 percent of the nation's population.
John Paul II is the first sitting pope to visit Baltimore, the nation's first Roman Catholic archdiocese. His 10-hour visit there on Oct. 23 is expected to draw throngs of people hoping to catch a glimpse of him riding by in the glass-enclosed Popemobile, choking traffic for miles around.
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Plans for the pope's Baltimore visit were announced yesterday at a news conference in which Baltimore Archbishop William H. Keeler was joined by Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer and Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.
"I hope that the visit will inspire young people to think about the church ... and family values, rather than the streets ... and drugs," Schaefer said.
John Paul II is expected to use the appearances to underscore the church's emphasis on the traditional family -- one of his most consistent themes -- said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the United States Catholic Conference. The United Nations has designated 1994 as the Year of the Family.
The pope's visit this year, only 14 months after he celebrated World Youth Day with a crowd of about 400,000 young people in Denver, was initially planned as a simple trip to address the U.N. General Assembly in connection with the United Nation's 50th anniversary, Walsh said.
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His U.N. speech will come about one month after the close of the U.N. International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. The Vatican has expressed strong disapproval of the Cairo conference for promoting birth control and accepting abortion, and the pope may use his U.N. speech to reiterate the church's criticism, Walsh said.
The Baltimore visit was added in recognition of the historic role of the archdiocese, and because of the pontiff's respect for Keeler's role as president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said several Catholic officials. John Paul II has visited Baltimore twice before, in 1969 and 1976, when he was a cardinal.
Keeler is known for his work in interfaith relations, and the Baltimore visit will reflect the warm relationships that the archbishop has established with Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders.
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Tickets to all the public events in each city will be free, but local Catholic officials are still discussing how to distribute them. In Baltimore, Keeler said, tickets likely will be apportioned to all 162 parishes in the archdiocese, which embrace Baltimore and nine counties in central and western Maryland with a Catholic population of about 440,000.
John Paul II, 74, who is still on the mend from a fall last April, has made more than 60 trips from Rome, including extensive trips to the the United States during the 1980s.
The pope is scheduled to arrive in New York on the afternoon of Oct. 20 and conduct a Vespers service at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue that night. The next day, he will address the United Nations and say Mass at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
On Oct. 22, he is scheduled to visit Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark, say Mass at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., and conduct a Celebration of the Word Service at Shea Stadium in Queens.
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The pope is scheduled to arrive at Baltimore-Washington International Airport at 9:45 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23. From there, he will travel by motorcade to Oriole Park, where he will give Mass about 11 a.m.
Next, he will lead the interfaith parade through downtown from the stadium to the archbishop's residence, next to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. There, he will take a break and attend a private prayer service in the basilica, which once served as the Cathedral of Baltimore.
Later, he will motorcade to the new, 1,400-seat Mary Our Queen Cathedral on the north side of the city and take part in a 6 p.m. ecumenical "service of greetings and prayer" attended by priests and nuns, and representatives of other faiths.
