The Pope in Switzerland.

Bern -- On June 5 the Holy Father travelled to Bern to meet with Swiss Catholic youth during a 32-hour pilgrimage.

The Saturday of his arrival, the headline of a leading Swiss paper, Le Temps, said, "John Paul in Switzerland, an air of indifference." Two days later, the same paper began its lead article with the headline, "Magic has worked once again. Between the Pope and Young People there is a lasting love, undoubtedly encouraged by the elixir of Faith." Marc Aellen, spokesman for the country's episcopal conference, said that for the meeting in the Bern arena they did not expect more than 3,000 to 4,000 young people; but 14,000 came. "For Sunday we didn't dare to hope even for 40,000; instead 70,000 people attended the Mass."

Because of immigration, Switzerland has about 3.5 million Catholics out of a population of about 7.3 million.

In March the Swiss episcopal conference rejected requests by the Catholic Synod of Lucerne for the ordination of women and the abolition of priestly celibacy. Father Nicolas Buttet, founder of the Eucharistein Community, and one of the organizers of the papal visit, described its context as a contentious, extremely divided Switzerland. There were disputes concerning condoms as well as the ordination of women and a married clergy. Just before his arrival, a group of priests and lay people asked the Pope not to come. So his coming was even more of a triumph than it might have been. 0nly the Pope, said Father Buttet, was capable of gathering together all Swiss Catholics, who have been divided for decades.

For Pope John Paul the principal motive for his trip was to join young Swiss Catholics in their first national meeting. His message to them could be summed up in three verbs: "Rise! Listen! Follow him! It is Christ himself," he said, "who calls the youth of the third millenium to rise up, that is to give full meaning to their lives."

The state used the opportunity of the Pope's visit to join 173 other countries and appoint an ambassador to the Vatican for the first time since the pre-Reformation days 400 years ago. A number of Protestants reacted extremely negatively even to the point of distributing pamphlets inviting people to leave the Catholic Church. Others refused to attend the final Mass on the pretext that there was no inter-communion. The Pope replied by emphasizing the difference between an adolescent ecumenism of little depth and a mature one, searching together for the truth.