This week in Philly history: Pope John Paul II is the first sitting pope to visit Philadelphia
In October 1979, Pope John Paul II became the first sitting pope to visit the City of Brotherly Love, and the pontiff drew a Super Bowl parade-type crowd from a deeply Catholic Philly population.
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“Shepherd One” was late.
The crimson and silver jetliner carrying Pope John Paul II, delayed by rainy weather and New York frenzy, landed an hour behind schedule in Philadelphia at 3:05 p.m. on Oct. 3, 1979.
About a million people across the deeply Catholic city eagerly awaited his arrival, marking the first official visit of a sitting pope to the City of Brotherly Love.
Several thousand schoolchildren welcomed him at the airport. Broad Street was lined with bands and banners and believers who waited hours to cheer on the papal motorcade, hoping for a glimpse of the blue-eyed, 59-year-old Polish pontiff.
An outdoor arena theater was built over Swann Fountain in the middle of Logan Square for the papal Mass, the centerpiece of the pope’s not-quite 24-hour visit. Despite fears of rain clouds following the pope’s plane from New York, patches of blue sky showed through when the Mass started at 5 p.m.
Hundreds of thousands of people filled every crevice in the theater’s wingspan, stretching from City Hall to the Art Museum, forming a wall of humanity. People climbed trees and monuments, and crowded apartment balconies and low-slung rooftops to hear the leader of the Roman Catholic Catholic Church say Mass.
In his homily, Pope John Paul II praised the “sound moral principles” set down by “your Founding Fathers and enshrined in your history.” He also called for strengthening of the family unit, warned against abuses in human rights and religious freedom, and condemned “disturbing tendencies” with regard to lax views on sexuality and priest celibacy.
During Communion, the pontiff handed out Eucharist to 150 pre-selected individuals of diverse backgrounds, as 1,000 priests fanned out and distributed throughout the crowd.
“To different people this day means different things,” Rev. Patrick J. McLaughlin, one of the priests who distributed communion at the Mass, told The Inquirer. “To a policeman, it’s just a long day. To the pickpockets, it’s a holiday. But to we who are Catholic, it’s an opportunity for a renewed commitment for our faith.”
At 12:24 p.m. on Thursday, the pope’s plane was wheels up, and he was headed to Iowa for the third stop on his seven-day stay in the United States, which included an address at the United Nations and the first visit of a pope to the White House. John Paul II, who died in 2005, was canonized as a saint in 2014.