Byline: Combined wire services
As protesters outside shouted "shame, shame," Pope John Paul II blessed AIDS patients Thursday and proclaimed God's love and forgiveness for victims of the disease who have felt the church's disapproval.
Meeting at a downtown church with 62 AIDS patients, including homosexual men, the Pope hugged and kissed a 4-year-old boy who contracted the incurable immune disorder through a blood transfusion. The child playfully tugged on the pontiff's ear.
John Paul placed his hands on the heads and shoulders of the adult AIDS victims. With some he shook hands and offered his ring to be kissed.
Beyond the security perimeter around Mission Dolores, some 2,000 demonstrators among a crowd of 25,000 cried "shame, shame" and "Pope, go home." Some denounced the church's opposition to homosexual acts; others its refusal to ordain women …
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