Traveling through history with John Paul

VATICAN CITY - My first pope trip was John Paul’s trip to England and Scotland in the early summer of 1982.  I was the light/bag & ladder carrier for the ABC News crew and I was 20 years old. That trip was also the first ever visit of a Roman Pontiff to the country that had separated from Catholicism under Henry VIII.

That trip took place on the tumultuous stage of its time.

The civil war in Beirut was blazing. Yasser Arafat had taken refuge in the heart of the city with his PLO fighters, and then General Ariel Sharon led an invasion of Lebanon to oust him.

England was at war with Argentina over the windswept Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, and the pope’s trip to England had to be balanced for fairness with an unscheduled trip to Argentina.

Meantime, the trial of the Turkish assassin who had shot the pope was under way in a special maximum-security bunker courtroom.

The Cold War was in full swing and the world's media were gathered at the trial of Mehmet Ali Agca waiting for the exposure of a suspected Soviet plot to kill the pope.  It had only been a year since the shooting in St. Peter’s Square and the 62-year-old pontiff was still recovering from the severe abdominal wounds.

John Paul II was then already a heroic figure of global fame. He was young, strong, and captivating. He was humble but fearless, and he had launched his moral assault on the Communist dictatorship of Poland. 

Getting on the papal plane was an honor and a privilege for me, and I was blown away by the caliber of the media on board, of which I was the youngest member in the unglamorous role of ABC sherpa.

Excitement of covering the ‘newsy’ pope
The plane was a narrow-bodied Alitalia aircraft with three seats on each side of the aisle. The pope sat in the first-class section up front, his entourage and security sat in the next business class section, and buffered him from economy where the media rode. The atmosphere in coach was almost frat-house like. 

Nobody wore seatbelts. Camera gear and photo equipment lay everywhere on airplane seats. These were the early 80’s and everybody still smoked and drank the hard stuff, especially in Europe. The first thing the flight attendants gave us was a carton of cigarettes and a box of designer perfume.  

There was a feeling of new adventure to it all. This was John Paul’s 12^th foreign trip and he had already drawn the massive crowds that would mark his papacy. 

Best of all, Pope John Paul II was “newsy.” He made news, and nothing pumped up journalists like knowing they were going to get their story on front pages and tops of newscasts.

For the photographers and camera people he was a dream. He always gave us something to shoot. Gestures, facial expressions, and his trademark action upon arriving to a new land: bounding vigorously down the airplane steps, kneeling and bending down to kiss the ground.  

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