Given the task, a legion of angels would have helped. The shopping list was gargantuan: for San Antonio, 10,000 volunteer ushers; for Columbia, S.C., ten miles of crowd-control rope; for Miami, a call-up of 2,400 National Guardsmen; for Phoenix, 150,000 silver-hued crucifixes for distribution before and during Mass; for New Orleans, 1,500 potted mums for the altar and 1,700 portable toilets carted in from all over the South. Scores of committees have been working for two years and more planning the Pope's nine-city tour, and still not everything could be anticipated. Sounding bemused, Monsignor Roger Morin, chief planner for John Paul's 35-hour stop in New Orleans, sighed, "It's like having a dozen national conventions back to back on the same day."
The worries range from natural calamities to man-made disasters. Fretting over the possibility of bad weather in Miami, organizers scheduled the Pope's outdoor Mass there during the morning, when showers are least likely. City officials in Los Angeles, contemplating the nightmarish prospect of the Holy Father's being trapped in his Popemobile in the city's snail-like traffic, ordered up a helicopter. "Even God can't negotiate the freeways," acknowledged Robert Spann, coordinator of the papal visit for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. In San Antonio, heat is a big concern; after planners of the outdoor Mass allotted only 6 sq. ft. of standing room for each of 500,000 expected worshipers, the Metropolitan Health director, Dr. Katharine Rathbun, quit. "It's too dangerous," she warned, "and for the love of God, don't bring your children." Church officials insisted there was no cause for alarm; but just in case, a 600-bed field hospital has been arranged.
Comparatively speaking, there were fewer fears about protesters. "We are aware that America is a very open and outspoken society," says Vatican Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls calmly. John Paul's personal party of 15 includes only four security men. But an undisclosed number of U.S. Secret + Service officers will help guard him throughout the visit along with, naturally, the police forces in each city. The Pope is sure to be confronted by demonstrators angry about papal positions. Indeed, some started early. Last week Eleanor Smeal, ex-president of NOW, was among those arrested protesting the status of women in the church at the Vatican embassy in Washington. The gay Catholic group Dignity plans a vigil in Detroit to pray for the Pope's enlightenment on lesbian and gay rights issues. In Los Angeles, feminist, homosexual and atheist groups have formed an ad hoc alliance to stage a vigil outside the parish house of St. Vibiana's Cathedral, where the Pope will be staying, in hopes that their chanting will keep him awake all night.