Pope John Paul at Adzopeh

Pope John Paul's 12,000 mile journey to six African countries in May meant, as we have come to expect, a non-stop programme of demanding public engagements.
The capitals, Accra, Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Nairobi, Wagadugu, Abidjan, vied with each other in decking themselves out and organising enormous gatherings.
Everywhere, tirelessly the Pope spoke to the full diplomatic corps, addressed parliaments and national assemblies. and great open spaces were crammed with congregations stretching as far as the eye could see for the Pope's Mass and to hear the message he had come to bring.
Then, suddenly, towards the end of his journey, a helicopter rose into the African sky carrying the Pope, almost alone, away from the milling, cheering, singing crowds, into the silent distance, Far up country it "chopped" its way until it hovered over a forest clearing and came gently down near a village of conical grass-roofed huts.
And out of the huts to welcome him came little groups of lepers.
It was the leprosy centre at Adzopeh.
"Nobody." said the mis sionary Sister at the clinic. "ever comes here".
And yet, there was the Pope. walking amongst the victims of leprosy, going from one to another, some in their dwellings, some in the clinic, some, the advanced cases whose limbs called for drastic surgery, lying on their pallets in the long, low hospital building.
He was comforting each with words and gestures and compassionate eyes, asking them to be witnesses to our Lord, pondering aloud the sanctity of suffering through the Passion of Christ, moved by the dedication of the missionaries, lay, religious, priests, who spend their lives in this remote place in unremitting love and service and happiness with their beloved victims of leprosy.
On the foreheads of some of the patients the Pope poured the waters of Baptism, on others he traced the annointing of Confirmation and touched disfigured cheeks with the ritual gesture of the hand which symbolises fortitude.
One of the few people who were there on that day, and to whom we owe these details, contrasts this almost private visit of the Pope with the great public manifestations of the rest of the African journey, and adds: "The sight of the Holy Father, going from one after another of those leprosy sufferers is engraved on one's memory as the focal point of the whole African journey, bringing to light the very meaning and purpose of all the rest of it."
Had the Pope not declared when he had announced his forth coming visit to Africa, that his only motive was to fulfil his mission as Pastor, the shepherd of Christ's flock? Nowhere surely was that essential caring so unmistakably shown as the secluded company of these victims of leprosy ... -.whenever you do it to my least ones" ...
Adzopeh will long remember.
So too, should the whole world of leprosy.
***** In some parts of the world it is other storms than the winds of winter that sweep down on the leprosy centres.
From Uganda, in the middle of the past year, came the all too familiar tale of turmoil and distress. "On top of last year's war," reads one letter, with its large scale looting, we have had to contend with an outbreak of sleeping sickness in the villages all around us. Our leprosy team has done trojan work in our area. What with cholera and typhoid and near famine in places, our services and supplies were in heavy dernand. The mission hospitals were the only ones able to function properly."
There have been some unexpected changes. Like leprosy workers everywhere, those in this particular area have been battling for years to break down prejudice against the victims of leprosy so that they will no longer be ostracised but accepted back into society. Now, by way of a pathetic irony, a "reintegration" in reverse has been taking place, for non-leprosy patients clamoured for admission to the leprosy centre to receive general medical attention which they were unable to get elsewhere.
The letter speaks of the heartrending distress the missionaries have been witnessing. In particular, the lack of medical care for babies and small children has been acute. The centre has had to share its supplies of medicines, vaccines, food, bedding.
"But clearly," the letter goes on, "our work for our leprosy patients always has priority and in this field the work, thank God, is going well." It adds that the outclinics set up to care for them are working efficiently, which means that there are fewer patients resident at the centre.
This relatively new plan, which is being aimed at generally in all leprosy areas, of setting up outclinics served from a leprosy centre, has the enormous advantage of making it possible for many leprosy victims to remain on their home ground, amongst their own villagers. Rather than uproot them, the missionary leprosy workers go off in jeeps and trucks, bumping out over rutted roads and slithering along bushland tracks, from one village clinic to the next.