Pastoral Trips of Pope John Paul II - 1990s

1990s

The Pope's foreign travel programme for 1994 was suspended due to a fall resulting in hip-replacement surgery. Visits to Belgium, USA and Lebanon were cancelled as a result. The visits to Lebanon and America took place the following year, 1995, while the visit to Lebanon was delayed until 1997.

There was a plot to assassinate the Pope during his visit to Manila in January 1995, as part of Operation Bojinka, a mass terrorist attack that was developed by Al-Qaeda members Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. A suicide bomber dressed as a priest and planned to use the disguise to get closer to the Pope's motorcade so that he could kill the Pope by detonating himself. Before January 15, the day on which the men were to attack the Pope during his Philippine visit, an apartment fire brought investigators led by Aida Fariscal to Yousef's laptop computer, which had terrorist plans on it, as well as clothes and items that suggested an assassination plot. Yousef was arrested in Pakistan about a month later, but Khalid Sheik Mohammed was not arrested until 2003. During this trip to Philippines, on 15 January 1995, the Pope offered Mass to an estimated crowd of 4–5 million in Luneta Park, Manila, the largest papal crowd ever.

Pope John Paul II's strong Marian devotion was highly influenced by the Mariology of Saint Louis de Montfort and according to his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, the pontiff's personal motto "Totus Tuus" was inspired by St. Louis' doctrine on total consecration to the Virgin Mary. Accordingly, on September 19, 1996, Pope John-Paul II made a trip to Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in France to meditate and pray on the adjacent tombs of Saint Louis de Montfort and Blessed Marie Louise Trichet, whom he beatified himself.

On March 22, 1998, during his second Papal visit to Nigeria, he beatified the Nigerian monk Cyprian Michael Tansi. This was a beatification that greatly endeared the Pope to many African Catholics.

Also in 1999, John Paul II made a final trip to the United States, this time celebrating Mass in St. Louis in the Edward Jones Dome. Over 104,000 people attended the January 27 Mass, making it the biggest indoor gathering in United States history.