Bellahouston Park - Papal Visits

Papal Visits

The papal visit of John Paul II in June 1982, which attracted a congregation of approximately 250,000, was the largest recorded gathering in the history of the city. Despite this, the visit was the cause of some disquiet. The Roman Catholic Church had paid for the drainage of some parkland close to Mosspark Boulevard which was prone to flooding, in order to increase the number of worshippers able to attend. Six trees were also removed to improve the view of a hill that housed the dais where the Pope was to celebrate Mass. However, protesters chained themselves to the trees to prevent this.

There was also another protest in the form of Pastor Jack Glass, who stood in a local election for the "Pastor Jack Glass against the Papal visit" political party. There was further disquiet after the event when some said that the church had failed to honour its pledge to return the park to its original condition. However, the reality was that the removed trees required to be held for a couple of years in a nursery to stabalise them before they were replanted back in the park, some three years after the Mass with Pope John Paul II. A white brick painted wall that accommodated the rear of the stage has been maintained. On the death of John Paul II in April 2005, flowers were laid against the wall.

It was due to the replacement of these trees that when Pope Benedict XVI came to the same park on 16th September 2010, the same site for the altar was not possible since the replaced trees had grown for some 25 years, obscuring it from view. When a visit by the Vatican planning team took place, it was decided to arrange the Mass in an East-West direction in the lower area of the Park. This decision meant that it would be impossible to have the same numbers of people present for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in September 2010.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open-air Mass in Bellahouston Park to celebrate the Feast of Saint Ninian on the evening of 16 September 2010, with a congregation of over 71,000 people, as part of his state visit to the United Kingdom.