1980s
On June 2, 1980, he made a pilgrimage to Lisieux in northern France, the home town of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face. In 1997 he declared St. Therese the third woman Doctor of the Church. His 1980 visit to France was the first by a pope since 1814 and his journey to Germany in November 1980 was the first since 1782.
On February 18, 1981, he beatified several martyrs, including those later sainted, St. Lorenzo Ruiz and Magdalene of Nagasaki, in Manila. This was the first beatification to be held outside Vatican City.
He became the first reigning pope to travel to the United Kingdom in 1982, where he met Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. This trip was in danger of being cancelled due to the then current Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur), against which he spoke out during the visit. In a dramatic symbolic gesture, he knelt in prayer alongside Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, in the See of the Church of England, Canterbury Cathedral, founded by St Augustine of Canterbury. They prayed at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, meant as a show of friendship between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. Pope John Paul II was the first Pontiff to visit Scotland. 300,000 of the Roman Catholic minority in that country celebrated Mass with the Pope at Bellahoustan Park. On this visit the Pope faced protest from Protestant extremist Pastor Jack Glass and his followers. This visit had to be balanced for fairness with an unscheduled trip to Argentina that June.
Throughout his trips, he stressed his devotion to the Virgin Mary through visits to various shrines to the Virgin Mary, notably Knock in Ireland, Fatima in Portugal, Guadalupe in Mexico, and Lourdes in France. His public visits were centred on large Papal Masses; 1,250,000 people, one quarter of the population of the island of Ireland, (one third of the population of Republic of Ireland) attended his Mass in Dublin's Phoenix Park in 1979.
In 1984, John Paul became the first Pope to visit Puerto Rico. Stands were specially erected for him at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, where he met with governor Carlos Romero Barceló, and at Plaza Las Americas.
The pope made a pastoral trip to Singapore in 1986, and was warmly received by the Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in the Istana. Following that, the Pope made pastoral speeches concerning the Catholic doctrines in the National Stadium of Singapore, which was viewed by a large audience.
Read more about this topic: Pastoral Trips Of Pope John Paul II