Agreement Reached For Papal Trip to Romania

ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 16—The Vatican has reached an agreement to allow Pope John Paul II to visit Romania in May, the first trip to a predominantly Orthodox country of his 20-year-long papacy, the AP reports.

John Paul will spend three days in Bucharest, the capital, but will not travel to Transylvania, where most Catholics live. More than 80% of Romania's 23 million people are Orthodox, while Catholics — Latin- and Eastern-rite — number about 2.4 million, or 10%, said the report.

A visit to Romania could help smooth the way for the Pope to visit Russia, where Catholic-Orthodox relations are tense.

Relations between the churches have been strained in a number of Eastern European countries following the fall of communism by arguments between Orthodox and Catholics over property seized from Catholics and handed over to the Orthodox.

Pope Appeals for Peace on Ambon

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORP., March 15—Australian television journalists reported that Pope John Paul II has taken the concerns of Indonesian's eastern island of Ambon to heart.

The fighting there between Christians and Muslims claimed more than 200 lives in two months, said the report. Police there have arrested 20 men at Ambon's port, after they arrived by boat from other islands carrying arrows, daggers and sickles.

“The Pope has appealed directly for an end to religious violence wracking Indonesia's eastern island of Ambon,” it said. The appeal, made in the Holy Father's weekly radio address, was reported at Sunday Masses to parishioners.