如今，教皇的出访往往没有太大的影响力。然而在1964年，保罗六世成为自1809年庇护七世被拿破仑·波拿巴的军队强行带往法国以来首位离开意大利的教皇，开启了教皇出访的新纪元。
Papal trips rarely have much import these days. In 1964, Paul VI inaugurated the traveling papacy when he became the first pontiff to leave Italy since Pius VII was carted off to France at gunpoint by Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers in 1809.
约翰·保罗二世不仅将教皇访问视为一次牧灵之旅，更赋予其重要的政治意义。
John Paul II made the papal tour not merely a pastoral visit, but an event of weighty political significance.
在波兰，他激励同胞们反抗共产主义统治；在古巴，他谴责卡斯特罗政权的人权侵犯行为；他在饱受冲突困扰的非洲国家致力于调解和平，并在英阿两国交战期间相继访问了两国。
In Poland, he galvanized his compatriots to rise up against their communist masters; in Cuba, he condemned human-rights abuses by the Castro regime. He undertook peace-making efforts in conflict-torn African countries and made trips to Britain and Argentina in quick succession while those two countries were actually at war.