CROATIA: POPE JOHN PAUL II ISSUES HIS DEFENCE OF FAMILY RIGHTS DURING AN OPEN AIR MASS OF MORE THAN 100,000 PEOPLE IN NORTHERN PORT CITY OF RIJEKA

Record ID: 649297

  • Title: CROATIA: POPE JOHN PAUL II ISSUES HIS DEFENCE OF FAMILY RIGHTS DURING AN OPEN AIR MASS OF MORE THAN 100,000 PEOPLE IN NORTHERN PORT CITY OF RIJEKA
  • Date: 8th June 2003
  • Summary: (W4) RIJEKA, CROATIA (JUNE 8, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF CROWD GATHERED AT RIJEKA DELTA (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. SLV: POPEMOBILE ARRIVING AT SITE OF MASS; SECURITY WALKING IN FRONT OF POPEMOBILE 0.14 3. SLV: POPEMOBILE DRIVING THROUGH CROWD OF PILGRIMS WAVING VATICAN FLAGS 0.20 4. SCU: POPE JOHN PAUL WAVING FROM POPEMOBILE, PEOPLE WAVING AND APPLAUDING 0.25 5. SV: SECURITY AND POPEMOBILE DRIVING THROUGH CROWD / PEOPLE WAVING 0.41 6. SCU: WOMEN READING PRAYER BOOK 0.50 7. SCU: WOMAN PRAYING 0.55 8. MV: POPE JOHN PAUL ARRIVING ON STAGE/ WIDE OF STAGE (2 SHOTS) 1.08 9. MV: (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) POPE JOHN PAUL, SAYING: "Nowadays the family, also in Croatia, requires special consideration and concrete policies aimed at promoting and protecting its essential nature, its development and its stability." 1.35 10. SV: GROUP OF PEOPLE LISTENING 1.42 11. MV; (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) POPE JOHN PAUL, SAYING: "Society today is tragically fragmented and divided. This is the reason why it is so desperately unfulfilled." 2.18 12. WIDE VIEW CROWD 2.24 13. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING: "I think people here need his blessing, I think he is a man who truly wishes well to people and that they should listen to what he says." 2.40 14. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN, SAYING: "This is the first time I am attending his mass and it is glorious, I simply cannot describe the feeling." 2.46 15. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN (DAUGHTER OF WOMAN WHO SPOKE EARLIER), SAYING: "My mother was so excited I thought she would start crying. I think he will enlighten people. Somebody had to come and do that when we don't know how to do it ourselves." 2.55 16. PAN; YOUNG WOMAN BEING CARRIED ON STRETCHER 3.05 17. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BEING TREATED INSIDE RED CROSS TENT (3 SHOTS) 3.18 18. PAN: PEOPLE STANDING IN STREET, LISTENING TO MASS 3.31 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RIJEKA, CROATIA
  • Country: Croatia
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZALQDRSZL28WI600WXFUCE17
  • Story Text: Pope John Paul has urged Catholics to defend traditional
    family values and oppose innovations such as gay
    marriages to put what he called a "tragically fragmented"
    society back on track with God's wishes.


    The pope issued his defence of family rights during an
    open air mass for more than 100,000 people on Sunday (June 8),
    in the northern Croatian port of Rijeka, an Adriatic city that
    was part of Italy and known as Fiume between the two world
    wars.

    Since his visit to Croatia began on Thursday (June 5),
    the pope has been preaching reconciliation for the people of
    the Balkans torn apart by the wars of independence in the
    early 1990's.

    But on Sunday, addressing the crowd in Croatia's biggest
    port and shipbuilding hub, he turned his attention to what he
    sees as threats to the family -- a recurring theme of the
    papacy that will mark its 25th anniversary in October.

    Wearing red vestments on another sweltering day, the pope
    said the traditional family needed special consideration and
    concrete policies aimed at promoting and protecting it's
    essential nature, development and stability.

    "Society today is tragically fragmented and divided. This
    is the reason why it is so desperately unfulfilled," he told
    the cheering crowd packing the streets of the city that was
    once the chief port of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

    The 83-year-old Polish Pontiff has been holding up fairly
    well during his five-day trip to the former Yugoslav republic,
    his 100th outside Italy.

    Like the entire northern Adriatic, Rijeka was spared the
    destruction in the 1991-95 independence war and ethnic harmony
    has been largely preserved among Croats, Italians and Serbs.

    The pope's health has been under scrutiny by the media
    since he started his visit on Thursday. While appearing tired
    at times, he read his sermons in clear and understandable
    Croatian.

    It has been the second overseas trip -- after Spain in May
    -- that the Vatican has brought over a special motorised
    hydraulic chair which allows the pope to move around and lifts
    him up to the altar so he can say mass while seated.

    But despite ailments including parkinsons and arthritis,
    he appears to have no intention of slowing down. He is due to
    visit Bosnia on June 22 and Slovakia in September. He may also
    go to Mongolia in late August. The Croatia trip ends on Monday
    (June 9).


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