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John Paul II arrives in New Delhi

George Iype in New Delhi

Amidst protests and controversies, Pope John Paul II, spiritual head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, arrived in India tonight for the second time in 13 years.

The Pope, who is also the head of state of Vatican City, the world's smallest nation, was accompanied by a forty-member delegation that included cardinals, theologians, bishops and security personnel.

The 79-year-old Poland-born pontiff was received at the Delhi airport by Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Kumar Panja and India's envoy to Switzerland and the Vatican K P Balakrishnan along with a twenty-member team of Catholic cardinals and bishops from many Asian countries.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the secretary of state who is virtually the Vatican's acting prime minister, headed the papal entourage.

Others in the special Alitalia plane included Cardinal Stephan Kin Sou-Hwan, Cardinal Josef Tomko, Cardinal Michael Michai Kitbunchu, Cardinal Peter Seeichi Shirayanagi and a fifty-member team of international journalists.

Soon after arrival, the Pope checked into the Vatican's embassy in Chanakyapuri, where he will stay till Monday morning, when he leaves for Georgia. Church and external affairs ministry officials said the Pope would not officially meet anyone tonight.

An unusual aspect of the pontiff's schedule was that he did not attend a welcoming ceremony at the airport after a flight of seven-and-a-half hours. Instead, the ceremony and inspection of the guard of honour will take place tomorrow morning at Rashtrapati Bhawan, just before his meeting with President K R Narayanan.

The Pope will then be closeted with Narayanan in his Morning Room for 30 minutes. Later, at 1015 IST, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Vice-President Krishna Kant, and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh will call on the pontiff at Hyderabad House.

Soon after his meetings with the Indian leaders, the Pope will proceed to Rajghat to pray at the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi.

But his crucial function will be on Saturday evening when he releases an apostolic document for Asia on the eve of the new millennium. The document was discussed at a special meeting of bishops in Rome from April 19 to May 14.

On Sunday morning, the Pope will formally close the special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Asia by leading a three-hour High Mass at the 100,000-seat Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

That evening, he will meet representatives of India's major religions and other Christian churches at Vigyan Bhawan. Church sources said the meeting would give the Pope a chance to reaffirm inter-religious harmony in the wake of the attacks on Christians by Hindu extremist groups in India.

During the meeting, the Pope is expected to renew the Church's commitment to inter-religious dialogue, echoing Indian bishops, who have been emphasising that the attacks were the work of a small minority and do not implicate all Hindus.

Church sources also said the Pope would not speak explicitly about the attacks on Christians, but would cite India's long tradition of spiritual harmony and religious tolerance.

Unlike his visit to India in 1986, when the Pope visited many cities like New Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Cochin and Trivandrum, the two-day trip this time is confined to Delhi.

While India's 16 million Catholics and other Christian denominations are rejoicing at the pontiff's visit, the trip has also raised a hue and cry with some Sangh Parivar organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad demanding an apology from him for alleged forced conversions and the Goa Inquisition.

Though some shankaracharyas also joined the issue leading to a heated debate on conversions across the country prior to the papal visit, the protests have died down considerably.

But several pro-Hindu organisations did put up banners across New Delhi asking the Pope to exhort his flock to stop all conversions in India. 'Welcome to the Pope. But conversion is a crime,' said one such banner on Shanti Path.

The Pope's Visit

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