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Vol. 83 No. 10 CJSPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Monday, September 14, 1987
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By Lee Schexnaider
Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO —The National
iuardsmen stand 20 feet apart
Jong Pontranco Road in San Anto-
lio. They stand in camouflage with
anteens, cameras and miniature
elevision sets. They are watching,
vaiting.
|:'Mles of spent road flares litter the
ground.
. U S. Secret Service personnel in
iiuits and ties watch the crowd. Tiny
|Lvires snake out of their collars and
nto the earphones tucked in their
iars. They are becoming tense. Pope
John Paul IPs plane has landed.
Papal ushers in black slacks and
vhite shirts start to line the roads
hrough the crowd. Their yellow
:aps and sashes shine brightly in
vhai little sun breaks through the
Jouds.
A two-star general walks by, in-
pecting his troops.
Everyone has a camera.
An American Red Cross volun-
eer sprays the crowd with a spray
•ottle filled with water.
The crowd applauds.
It is announced that the 540-
nember choir will begin practicing
he songs and refrains they will sing
luring the Mass. People open up
heir free papal programs to the
ight page. The choir sings and the
•eople echo them.
Holy, holy, holy Lord. God of
>ower, God of might. Heaven and
larth are full of your glory. Ho-
anna in the highest. Blessed is he
/ho comes in the name of the Lord,
iosanna in the highest. Hosanna in
he highest.
Umbrellas open — not for the
ain, but from the hot Texas sun.
efforts make Mass success
mishaps at site
An old Spanish woman, weak and
sick from the heat, refuses to leave
her roadside chair. Several Red
Cross workers try to convince her to
accept help. A guardsman ap
proaches with a green canvas
stretcher. She will not go. The first
aid volunteers and the guardsman
leave. Her relatives fan her with a
picture-fan of the pope.
Small children play with rocks at
their parents’ feet. The rocks line a
small, newly built road with a thin,
asphalt coating.
Two birds circle overhead.
An usher asks people to close
their umbrellas because they block
the view behind them. They ask a
man to remove his ten-gallon hat for
the same reason.
Secret Service helicopters fly low
over the crowd, as do dragonflies.
Red and blue lights flash in the
distance. He has arrived.
The ushers join hands along both
sides of the road. Secret Servicemen
ride by in a four-wheel, all-terrain
vehicle.
“I can see him,” someone farther
ahead shouts. “There he is.”
Flags, banners and pennants start
to wave.
The “popemobile” slowly passes
by. The windows are slightly tinted,
so his white clothing appears gray.
The sky has begun to clear. Only a
few white, puffy clouds are left.
He follows a looping road
through another part of the crowd.
One of the ushers thanks the crowd
for being so well-behaved.
Gina Dallel of San Antonio is at a
free water booth near the road. She
is sitting on several cases of distilled
water jugs for a better look. The
pope is going to come around again.
Halfway around the loop, the po
pemobile speeds up. This time he
passes by rather quickly. Blink and
you would have missed him.
The motorcade proceeds to the al
ter, which is flanked by huge color
ful decorations.
Time passes as ushers and police
try to regain control of the crowd.
They have overflowed into the road
for a better view.
The temperature is rising quickly.
The crowd chants, “El Papa.”
The procession up the many steps
to the altar begins. The pope has
changed into a bright green vest
ment. The Mass proceeds.
See Crowd, page 14
Photo by Lee Schexnaider
Pope John Paul II passes through the crowd before the papal Mass in San Antonio on Sunday. The
crowd was estimated at 300,000 for the service.
Tourists crazy
over papal
keepsakes
By Elisa Hutchins
Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO — Pope John
Paul II visited San Antonio Sunday
to increase religious awareness and
reunite alienated Catholics to the
church, but the atmosphere in the
city and at the Mass was more like a
fiesta than a church service. Visitors
bought almost anything with the
pope’s picture on it.
About 300,000 people from 26
ethnic groups made the pilgrimage
to the Mass site and were greeted
along the way by vendors selling ev
erything from hats and T-shirts to
pennants and buttons. Some ven
dors even took pictures of customers
with a life-size cardboard replica of
the pope.
Deborah Konecny, a San Antonio
resident, set up a family-operated
jewelry stand on Potranco Road, the
main road to the site, on Sept. 10.
Unfortunately, Konecny said, the
$10, limited-edition pope-and
Texas-shaped necklaces didn’t sell as
well as expected because of a low
turnout.
About 500,000 were expected to
attend the Mass.
Other, less expensive items, like
$3 H.E.B. grocery store bus tokens,
were saved as mementos by some
tourists.
Fans adorned with the pope’s
image, which were used to ease the
94-degree heat, and free souvenir
Mass programs also were popular
items.
The sagging Texas economy pre
vented many people from coming to
San Antonio to participate in the his
torical event, while many of the ones
who did come were content to see
the pope and sign their names in al
bums at the San Fernando Cather-
dral instead of attending the Mass.
The two albums, witJn more than
30,000 signatures, were blessed by
the pope, church volunteer Sylvia
Salazar said.
Dolores Gonzales, who signed her
name to one of the albums, said, “I
came here to sign my name because
I am not going to go to the Mass, and
this way, I can be involved. Instead
See Souvenirs, page 14
300,000 attend San Antonio papal Mass
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Pope
ohn Paul II, feted with mariachis, a
Stetson and a longhorn steer,
greeted the largest crowds of his cur-
ent U.S. tour Sunday with plaudits
or Texans’ spirit.
In the first visit a pope has ever
nade to Texas, the pontiff cruised
)ast the Alamo in his Popemobile af-
er | calling the state a symbol of
America’s “founding moral prin-
:iples” and urging citizens of all
aces to work together.
Late Sunday afternoon, a
:heering crowd of about 325,000
ined city streets as the papal motor-
:ade wended toward San Fernando
Cathedral past the former Catholic
mission, renowned in film and lore
as the cradle of Texas liberty.
From there, thunderous applause
and cheers of “Viva El Papa” fol
lowed him to Our Lady of Guada
lupe Church in one of San Antonio’s
oorest neighborhoods, where he
lessed a yarn mural created by
Bexar County inmates depicting
him, six of the city’s poorest His
panic churches and the Lady of Gua
dalupe, Mexico’s patron saint.
Earlier at a hot, sunny outdoor
Mass attended by an estimated
300,000 people — 200,000 fewer
than predicted — the pontiff saluted
those who have worked “on behalf
of suffering brothers and sisters ar
riving from” Latin America.
“Your history registers a meeting
of cultures, indigenous and immi
grant, sometimes marked by ten
sions and conflicts, yet constantly
moving toward reconciliation and
harmony,” the pope, garbed in
green robes symbolic of hope and
growth, told worshipers at a 144-
acre site.
“People of different races and lan
guages, colors and customs, have
come to this land to make it their
home . . . You are thus a symbol and
a kind of laboratory testing Ameri
ca’s commitment to her founding
moral principles and human values,”
he said.
The Hispanic-American commu
nity, as expected, was the focal point
of the pope’s 23-hour stop in San
Antonio, the fourth sojourn on a
nine-city, 10-day U.S. tour that be
gan Thursday. The pope’s Sunday
Mass was the only one he will cele
brate this trip.
At Kelly Air Force Base, the pope
arrived at 10:01 a.m. CDT and was
greeted by San Antonio Archbishop
Patrick Flores, the nation’s first His
panic archbishop, along with Gov.
Bill Clements and Mayor Henry Cis
neros and their wives.
A seven-member local mariachi
group wearing sombreros and ma
roon costumes greeted the pontiff
Soviet official: Summit meeting
depends on outcome of U.S. visit
WASHINGTON (AP) — Soviet Foreign Min
ster Eduard A. Shevardnadze said Sunday a de-
ision on another superpower summit meeting
lepends on the outcome of his talks this week
dth President Reagan and Secretary of State
ieorge P. Shultz.
“We have come here in order to roll up our
leaves and work,” Shevardnadze said on his arri-
al from Moscow.
The white-haired Soviet official brought with
iim a letter for Reagan from Soviet leader Mik-
Ul ! I iail S. Gorbachev and “a degree of optimism.”
, , In a brief airport news conference, Shevard-
!0j adze added, “I would say cautious optimism,
laybe.”
\/OI IT not di sc l° se th 6 contents of Gorba-
y U UI hev's letter to Reagan, but said in Russian
« irough an interpreter, “As for the summit, ev-
3USine$^ w iH depend on the results of our work
ere.”
OOmh ^agan and Gorbachev agreed at their first
I Ik/i iceting in Geneva in November 1985 to hold
accessive summits the next two years in Wash-
igton and in Moscow.
I * r- n lt Instead, they met last October in Reykjavik,
| O^O-ZC^ 13 ™ 1 ’ anc * Gorbachev has not responded to the
resident’s invitation to visit the United States
tiskyear.
odvem
Last April during a visit by Shultz to Moscow,
Gorbachev said “Generally, without reason, I do
not go anywhere, particularly America.”
Reagan administration officials have not
pressed the Soviet leader for a response, but an
ticipated it might come during the talks to be
held with Shevardnadze Tuesday through
Thursday.
The Soviet foreign minister said the two sides
had made “very substantial progress” on a treaty
to ban intermediate-range nuclear missiles. But
he tempered the positive remark by saying “a
great deal of work also remains.”
Shevardnadze said differences remained over
warheads. On top of that, he said, procedures for
verifying destruction of the U.S. and Soviet
weapons as well as the pace still must be resolved.
“The warheads are a serious question,” he said.
However, Shevardnadze also declared, “We
have come in a businesslike spirit and in a work
ing spirit and with a degree of optimism.”
Similarly, Shultz said in a CBS television inter
view that despite a public squabble, there was
really little difference between the two sides on
how to implement the nearly completed U.S.-So
viet treaty to eliminate intermediate-range ballis
tic missiles as well as cruise missiles in Europe
and the Soviet Union.
But officials on both sides seemed to go out of
their way to lower expectations of any break
through in the three days of talks Shevardnadze
will hold here.
Veteran Soviet negotiator Viktor P. Karpov
hinted in an interview with the Soviet news
agency Tass on Saturday that Shevardnadze
would take a rigid stance in the final phase of the
treaty negotiations.
Karpov said if the United States refused to in
clude the U.S. warheads on West German Per
shing 1-A missiles in the pact, the Soviets might
withdraw their offer to eliminate 130 missiles in
the same general range of 315 to 565 miles.
That would still mean the scrapping of U.S.
and Soviet missiles that can fly up to 3,125 miles.
Presidential adviser Edward L. Rowny last
week accused the Soviets of holding cuts in strat
egic forces “hostage to demands that we abort
our hope for protection against a ballistic missile
threat.”
Likewise, other Reagan administration offi
cials warned against expecting dramatic devel
opments or a date for a visit to Washington visit
by Gorbachev during Shevardnadze’s talks here.
Assistant Secretary of State Rozanne L. Ridg-
way told reporters Friday, “This is not a meeting
about a summit.”
with what band leader Manuel Vega
described as “happy Mexican mu
sic.”
Two children received papal
kisses after they presented him with
yellow and red roses that are unoffi
cial symbols of the Lone Star State
and now the nation’s official flower.
While the pope and Flores toured
the Mass site in the bullet-proof Po
pemobile, musicians played and
sang hymns from the hastily re
paired altar whose 12-story towers
S led in high winds Thursday
t.
“We are making history today,”
Flores told the crowd. “In 20 centu
ries of Christianity, this is the first
time we are so beautifully blessed
with the successor to Peter, John
Paul II.
“We had a litde tragedy here that
destroyed part of the decorations,
some towers that had been con
structed immediately behind the al
tar. The towers collapsed, but the
church of Texas is standing.”
Medical workers treated about
500 people for heat-related prob
lems at first aid stations ringing the
Mass site as the heat index sizzled
above the century mark by early af-
See Pope, page 14
Pat Robertson tops
Iowa OOP’s straw poll
AMES, Iowa (AP) — Tele
vision evangelist Pat Robertson
gave his backers an emotional
charge with a call for “moral
strength” and won an easy victory
in a straw poll of activists who
gathered to listen to seven GOP
presidential hopefuls.
Robertson got a third of the
votes in the straw poll Saturday at
the state GOP’s “Cavalcade of
Stars,” outdistancing Senate Re
publican Leader Bob Dole and
Vice President George Bush. For
mer Secretary of State Alexander
Haig was the only candidate who
did not attend the state GOP’s
“Cavalcade of Stars.”
“I was surprised and I was im
pressed,” said Iowa Republican
Chairman Michael Mahaffey.
“They (Robertson backers) were
able to marshal their forces.”
George Wittgraf, Bush’s Iowa
campaign manager, said, “He is a
serious candidate and this is an
other indication of the serious
ness of his candidacy.”
Dole spokesman Steve Roberts
added, “He (Robertson) got a lot /
of respect tonight from the other
candidates. He’s a force to be
reckoned with.”
Most polls have shown Bush
and Dole locked in a close race in
Iowa with the other candidates
trailing far behind. While Bush
leads in most national polls, Dole
has built a strong organization in
Iowa, which holds an important
early test of the candidates’ ambi
tions with its Feb. 8 precinct cau
cuses.
Robertson got 33.6 percent of
the votes, compared to Dole’s
24.9 percent and Bush’s 22.4 per
cent. Rep. Jack Kemp of New
York was favored by 13.5 percent
while former Delaware Gov.
Pierre du Pont got support from
4.1 percent.
Haig and little-known candi
dates Ben Fernandez and Kate
Heslop were under 1 percent.
Roughly 4,200 ballots were
cast, though GOP officials said
5,700 tickets were sold for the
event.
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