Pope makes trip to Switzerland

Pope John Paul II made his first foreign trip in nine months today, calling it his “duty” to keep travelling and telling young people he had no intention of giving up.

“It’s wonderful to be able to offer oneself until the end for the cause of the Kingdom of God,” he told a rally of 13,000 Swiss Roman Catholic youths - describing that as his testimony after nearly 60 years as a priest.

His hands trembled and he had difficulty speaking at times, but his voice was clear and the crowd encouraged him by cheering.

The 84-year-old Pope has Parkinson’s disease and crippling hip and knee ailments, but he has repeatedly brushed aside any suggestion that he step down.

In Switzerland, where many in his own flock question some of his conservative teaching, leading Catholic theologians recently declared that popes – like bishops – should resign at 75.

While thousands of young people in red, yellow and orange T-shirts were heading to a hockey arena in Bern for the rally, police blocked an unauthorised protest by some 300 people in the so-called “Anti-Papist Alliance”.

They carried such signs as No Pope, No God.

About 1,000 anti-terrorist police were mobilised to provide security, an unusually large force in normally calm Switzerland.

John Paul was wildly cheered by the youths when he arrived at the rally, waving to the crowd from his wheeled throne on a stage.

Swiss Guards, recruited in Switzerland and about to celebrate 500 years of guarding popes, stood near him in their colourful uniforms and red-plumed helmets.

He recalled that when he was young he shared the worries of young people, particularly difficult during the Second World War and the communist era. He said he made sense to his life “in following the Lord Christ”.

The Pope is in Bern for a 32-hour visit. He is spending the night in a nursing home rather than the residence of the papal nuncio.

In addition to the rally, he is scheduled to preside at an open-air Mass tomorrow for 60,000 people in a meadow outside the city before returning to Rome in the evening.