When the helicopter delivering Pope John Paul II to a Catholic youth festival descended into Denver’s Mile High Stadium 32 years ago, the crowd’s roar, the pilot later told papal biographer George Weigel, created turbulence he hadn’t experienced since being under fire in the Vietnam War.
Denver was a curious choice to host World Youth Day. A handful of U.S. cities have deeper ties to the Catholic Church, while Denver was seen as not only not historically Catholic, but also not particularly religious. Its then-Archbishop (later Cardinal) J. Francis Stafford was committed nonetheless to bringing a wave of evangelization to Denver.
