Coventry
10.50am, Sunday, 30 May 1982

Having left his fellow Poles behind in London, Pope John Paul II travelled by helicopter to Coventry Airport where he was driven through a crowd of more than 350,000.

Arriving in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, the Pope was welcomed on the Feast of Pentecost by the newly installed Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville.

The Sacrament of Confirmation was to be administered at the Mass. In his homily, the Pope said:

“Christ's gift of the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out upon you in a particular way. You will hear the words of the Church spoken over you, calling upon the Holy Spirit to confirm your faith, to seal you in his love, to strengthen you for his service. You will then take your place among fellow-Christians throughout the world, full citizens now of the People of God. You will witness to the truth of the Gospel in the name of Jesus Christ. You will live your lives in such a way as to make holy all human life. Together with all the confirmed, you will become living stones in the cathedral of peace. Indeed you will be called by God to be instruments of his peace.”

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