Pope condemns death penalty in the heartland

"Modern society has the means of protecting itself without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform," he said during a Mass at the Trans World Dome on the final day of his visit to the Americas.

"I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary," the pope said.

The message may have had particular relevance in Missouri, where the state Supreme Court, without explanation, postponed an execution that was to have taken place while the pope was in town. Papal spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls called the delay "a mockery."

AP PHOTO Pope John Paul II greets the crowd at the Trans World Dome in St. Louis

Addressing the largest crowd of his 30-hour visit to the United States, his fifth to the U.S. mainland, the pope also lashed out against abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and declared that "the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil."

He also invited Roman Catholics separated from their faith to return to the church, even if there are "obstacles to Eucharistic participation," a reference to divorce and remarriage.

And he called on his flock to end racism. Racism is "a plague which your bishops have called one of the most persistent and destructive evils of the nation," the stooped, 78-year-old pontiff said, his voice hoarse and his words slurred.

Late yesterday, John Paul was to meet with civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, the black seamstress whose refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in 1955 led to the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott.

The pontiff also was scheduled to deliver an evening prayer service at the Cathedral Basilica and meet with Vice President Al Gore before leaving for Rome last night.

More than 100,000 people filled the seats of the Trans World Dome and a convention center adjacent to the football stadium, where the pope's image was projected on giant TV screens with running captions of his homily. One thousand priests celebrated Mass with the pope.

The faithful came for blessings, cures or just a glimpse of the man credited with hastening the fall of Communism and easing religious restrictions in Cuba.

Ida Costa, a cancer-stricken 77-year-old woman from Little Rock, Ark., looked for a miracle cure from the pope: "I'll get the blessings God wants to shower upon me in his presence."

Linda Mary DeLonais of Springfield, Ill., was a forest ranger when she saw the pope in Denver in 1993. "Part of the pope's final blessing was a prayer for vocations," she recalled. She since has become a nun.

The pope arrived in St. Louis on Tuesday after five triumphant days in Mexico. He met with President Clinton and attended a youth rally where he got rock-star treatment from the crowd of 20,000. His message: that Americans should use their freedoms responsibly and strive for a higher moral standard.

"It was exciting for the pope to go back and start his pilgrimage in Mexico, to close the gap between Mexico and the United States," Rosalia Vazquez said in St. Louis.

yesterday. He conducted Mass in Missouri today before returning to Rome.

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