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On November 26, 1970, Pope Paul VI embarked upon his longest, and what turned out to be the last, foreign trip of his papacy. On that day, Vatican City issued the five-stamp set, shown above, to commemorate his voyage. Each stamp bears the inscription 'In Universum Mundum MCMLXX' (meaning, The Whole World, 1970). During his previous eight foreign trips, the Pope had visited the Middle East, India, North America, South America, Africa and Europe (outside of Italy). This trip would bring him to the final untouched continents of Asia and Australia/Oceania. As he departed Rome, the Pope remarked that he was traveling: Not as a private tourist, and not even as the central figure of celebration and ceremony, but as bishop and head of the college of bishops, as pastor and missionary and fisher of men. Following a stopover in Tehran, Iran, the Pope proceeded to Dacca, East Pakistan (now known as Dhaka, Bangladesh). This was an extra stop added to the trip to visit and console the victims of a devastating cyclone that had recently hit the region. The first major stop on the trip was in the Philippines. En route, the papal airplane passed over Vietnam, a region still embroiled in the costly war that ravaged the region. The Pope sent messages to the capitals of Saigon and Hanoi and prayed for a ‘just peace with honor’. Upon his arrival at the airport in Manila, he survived an assassination attempt by a Bolivian painter, disguised as a priest, who tried to stab the Pope with a 9-inch knife. Having averted this tragedy, the Pope continued with the planned events in Manila, including a Mass at the Cathedral of Manila. Upon leaving Manila, the Pope flew to Samoa, visiting both American Samoa and the state of Western Samoa. While in Western Samoa, he celebrated Mass at Saint Anne’s Church in Leulumoega. It was then on to Australia, where the Pope spent three days. He celebrated Mass at the Randwick Racecourse before an estimated crowd of 200,000 worshipers. The pope’s trip coincided with the 200th anniversary of the arrival of Captain James Cook in Australia. Upon leaving Australia, the Pope’s next stop was Jakarta, Indonesia, where the Pope celebrated Mass at a Soviet-built stadium. This was followed by a short visit to Hong Kong. While there, the Pope had hoped to address the issues facing the Chinese people of Communist China, but following consultation with British authorities in Hong Kong, he tempered his speech to express his love for the Chinese people, wherever they may be. The final stop on the Papal Voyage was Colombo, Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). The final Mass of the trip was offered for the country’s Roman Catholics before an estimated throng of 500,000 people. It was then back to Rome, ending the ten-day, nine-state trip. References: Herbert Phinney, Vatican Notes, Volume 19, Number 5, pages 1-4, 1971, The Visit of Pope Paul VI to Australia and Oceania Michael Lemothe, Vatican Notes, Volume 60, Number 364, pages 10-15, 2012, The Pilgrim Pope: The Travels of Paul VI, Part III Vatican Philatelic Society website (www.vaticanstamps.org), Stamp Database Search | ||||||||||||||||||
