The throng inside the U.N. was pressing against the blue metallic railings. Out front, members of the press corps were clamoring for the Pope's attention. "Say something to him in Polish," a newsman advised, so TIME Religion Reporter-Researcher John Kohan shouted "Niech zyje!" the traditional wish for long life. Sure enough, the radiant white figure acknowledged the salutation and began to approach him. "Niech zyje!" repeated Kohan, who speaks both Polish and Russian, and, he recalls, "a U.N. security guard came at me thinking I was screaming obscenities." Kohan quickly explained his meaning to the guard, but too late. The Pontiff had moved on.

Close encounters with John Paul II and frequent run-ins with his zealous protectors were the mixed blessings of reporting for this week's 21-page special report on the Pope's historic visit to the U.S. TIME assigned 20 correspondents and stringers to back up the firsthand accounts of Rome Bureau Chief Wilton Wynn, who traveled on the Pontiffs plane from Italy to Ireland and around the U.S.

Getting near John Paul was often a problem for the more than 35 photographers who took pictures for the special report. Picture Editor Arnold Drapkin and his staff arranged accreditation for photographers with the Secret Service, the Vatican and individual archdioceses along the Pope's route, negotiating for ladders and scaffolding in strategic spots and, in the final days, installing remote-control cameras in vantage points off limits to the photographers themselves. It was, says Drapkin, "undoubtedly the biggest picture effort of the year."

And worth it, according to Staff Photographer Neil Leifer, who followed the Pope in four U.S. cities and Ireland. John Paul's unpredictable and expressive gestures--reaching into a crowd, picking up a baby--would have been "inconceivable" for Pope Paul VI, notes Leifer, who covered that Pontiffs U.N. visit in 1965. The Polish Pope, says Leifer, "has visual charisma and all the right moves. He kisses the ground as soon as he lands. There's the first picture!" But like his note-taking colleagues on the assignment, Leifer was often thwarted by overprotective police, impenetrable crowds and uncooperative weather. Finally the sun broke through as His Holiness climbed the flower-strewn altar at Living History Farms, Iowa, and from a crowded position farther away than he would have liked, Leifer captured the majestic image on this week's cover.

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