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ST. LOUIS (CNN) -- Pope John Paul II sent greetings to all Americans and all people of good will upon his arrival Tuesday in St. Louis and he urged them to "open wide your hearts" to less fortunate people.
The pontiff also warned that the country had entered a new and important "time of testing" that could affect the entire world in the next century.
He recalled the 1857 Dred Scott decision that formalized the status of enslaved African-Americans as mere property. The pontiff said that situation, at least in part, was reversed only after untold suffering and enormous effort.
The pope said a new moral trial today involved other human beings: the unborn, the terminally ill and the handicapped. The pontiff urged Americans not to deny those groups, which he said were "considered 'unuseful'" by some, the full protection of the law.
Amid kneeling cardinals and cheering crowds, the frail-looking 78-year-old pope walked slowly through an Air National Guard hangar draped with blue curtains and met President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The pontiff paused to pat children on the head, and several youngsters grabbed the pope around the waist for a hug. Some in the crowd couldn't get close enough to touch John Paul, but they shouted, "We love you, Holy Father."
Both the spiritual leader of the world's Roman Catholics and the leader of the United States made formal speeches.
Clinton praised John Paul for his efforts to promote peace and compassion for the less fortunate around the globe with "a boundless physical energy which can only find its source in limitless faith."
At the close of a century that had seen "much suffering, but which ends with much hope for freedom and reconciliation," Clinton honored John Paul for his past stands against communism and his defense of human rights from Africa to the Balkans.
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| After his speech, the pontiff pauses to bless a child backstage | |
"People still need to hear your message that all are God's children, all have fallen short of his glory," Clinton said. "All of the injustices of yesterday cannot excuse a single injustice today."
Clinton ended his remarks by saying in the pope's native Polish language, "may you live 100 years and more." And he added: "May you continue working and teaching and lighting the way. ... Welcome to the United States."
Pope John Paul II addressed what he termed a "time of trial" for American culture. He was not referring to the impeachment trial of President Clinton going on in the U.S. Senate.
The pope, likening the current debates over abortion and euthanasia to the country's past fight against slavery and racism over the past century, said, "America faces a similar time of trial."
"Today, the conflict is between a culture that affirms, cherishes and celebrates the gift of life, and a culture that seeks to declare entire groups of human beings ... considered 'unuseful' to be outside the boundaries of legal protection," the pontiff said.
Discussion includes Iraq, Cuba, human rights
Tuesday's visit marks the fourth time Clinton has met with the pontiff, and the first since the Monica Lewinsky scandal became public and led to the Senate impeachment trial.
Clinton met privately with the pope after the welcoming ceremony at the airport hangar. White House officials said Iraq, Cuba and human rights were on the agenda.
The pope didn't mention Iraq directly during the welcoming ceremony, but his prepared text referred to "rejecting violence."
"To choose life," the speech read, "involves rejecting every form of violence: the violence of poverty and hunger, which oppresses so many human beings; the violence of armed conflict which does not resolve but only increases divisions and tensions."
The pope has been critical of the U.S. strikes and United Nations' sanctions against Iraq, and he did so again Monday following a U.S. missile attack in southern Iraq during which civilians were killed.
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| Thousands of teen-agers attended an energetic, music-filled rally - the kind that has become a trademark of this papacy | |
The pope also has criticized the economic embargo against Cuba.
The differences of opinions between the U.S. president and the Catholic leader were unlikely to dampen the pope's welcome during his fifth visit to the U.S. mainland. As many as 600,000 visitors were expected to join more than 530,000 Catholics who live in the St. Louis area along procession routes and at various functions.
When the papal plane landed at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, young people waiting at the Kiel Center to join the pope in a youth rally Tuesday evening reacted with a rousing cheer.
The rally is a fitting event because the pope is counting on young Catholics to battle what he calls a "culture of death."
On Wednesday, he is scheduled to celebrate Mass before 104,000 people at the Trans World Dome. He also is to take part in an evening service at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis before departing the city that night.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.