Polish Catholics gathered together in prayer on 2 May, a month after the death of John Paul II. Masses and prayer meetings for the soul of Karol Wojtyla were celebrated in the basilicas and parish churches of Poland, especially in the evening, around 10.37 pm, the time when the pontiff passed away exactly a month ago. On the following day, 3 May, the nation celebrated a particularly solemn event in its life, the feast of Our Lady “Regina Poloniae”. The message signed by John Paul II on 1st April, shortly before his death, was read out in the sanctuary of Jasna Gora, at Czestochowa. Apart from the text, the last in order of time of the many signed by him, the two crowns for the Marian effigy of the sanctuary, donated by John Paul II, the ultimate testimony of his devotion to the “Black Madonna”, were shown to the faithful. The papal message, addressed to the Prior General of the Pauline Eremitical Fathers, Father Izydor Matuszewski, was delivered in the Vatican to the superior of the monastery of Jasna Gora, Father Marian Lubelski. In the document, the Pope recalls everything that God has done in his great mercy for Poland through the Virgin Mary and her visible sign the image of Jasna Gora during the history of the last 350 years that have passed since the victorious defence of the monastery and Poland from the Swedish invasion. At the end of his message, John Paul II writes: “May all this speak also to our generation! May these providential events be a call to unity in the promotion of the common good for the future of Poland and of all Poles! May they be a call to cherish eternal values, and so ensure that the exercise of freedom may lead to edification, and not to fall! As I kneel before the icon of the Queen of Jasna Gora, I pray that my nation, through faith in Her infallible protection and defence, may vanquish all that threatens human dignity and the good of our country. I entrust the Church in the land of Poland to her maternal protection, so that through the witness of holiness and humility she may always strengthen the hope in a better world in the hearts of all believers. I pray for those who are responsible for the future of Poland, that they may have the courage to defend everything good that serves for the Republic. In blessing and in offering these new crowns for the icon of Jasna Gora, I spiritually unite myself with the Pauline Fathers, custodians of the Sanctuary, and with all pilgrims. I entrust our Country, the whole Church and myself to her maternal protection. Totus Tuus!”. Poland also celebrated, on Sunday 1st May, a special day of awareness raising and fund-raising in all churches for the construction of a new church dedicated to Divine Providence in Warsaw. The project is supported by the Polish Bishops’ Conference, which intends in this way to fulfil a vow that dates back 200 years ago. The realization of the church, albeit some two centuries after the vow was made, represents for the Polish bishops a proof of the unity of faith of the nation that has rallied round the Virgin so many times, invoking her protection during particularly difficult moments in its more recent history.
