The great heritage” “

The images and the words of the religious ceremony that marked the taking of possession of the archdiocese of Krakow by its new archbishop, Stanislaw Dziwisz, on 27 August were beamed round the world and all the media gave them extensive coverage and particular emphasis. So the private secretary of John Paul II has succeeded him as head of the diocese where Karol Wojtyla was archbishop from 1963 to 1978, the year in which he was called to assume the throne of Peter and lead the universal Church. The heritage Archbishop Dziwisz assumes is therefore as prestigious as it is onerous, since he will also be called to continue the pastoral approach given to the diocese by the 78-year-old Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, who led it for 27 years, ever since Wojtyla’s election as Supreme Pontiff. 70,000 people and authorities attended at the first mass of the new archbishop placed the seal on the “change of guard”, in the line of continuity between three key figures of Polish religious history: the dead Pope, for whom the cause of canonization has now been opened, the elderly Cardinal Macharski, humble and steadfast spiritual leader, who faithfully followed the line impressed by John Paul II on Polish and universal Christianity, and Stanislaw Dziwisz, the “secretary” who has become metropolitan of a diocese that is now a symbol for the whole of Christianity in Eastern Europe, ever since the years of “Solidarnosc”, which has celebrated the 25th anniversary of its foundation in recent days. Below we quote some of the passages from the speeches given by Archbishop Dziwisz and by Cardinal Lustiger at the official ceremonies to mark the 15th anniversary of Solidarnosc, held in Gdansk and Warsaw.SOLIDARNOSC: ARCHBISHOP DZIWISZ, “THE ESSENCE OF ITS MISSION REMAINS INTACT”. “Times change, new problems arise, but the essence of the mission of our Polish ‘Solidarnosc’, of which we have been and continue to be proud, remains intact. That mission consists especially in respecting the subjective character of human work”, said the new archbishop of Krakow, STANISLAW DZIWISZ, in Gdansk on Wednesday 31 August, at the celebration marking the 25th anniversary of Solidarnosc. In his speech, pronounced before the authorities and trades-union representatives, not least the historic union leader Lech Walesa, the new archbishop recalled the numerous and significant interventions in which John Paul II had supported, encouraged and enhanced the role of Solidarnosc in a Poland that was yearning for freedom and social justice. Archbishop Dziwisz then added: “Today, as 25 years ago, Poland has a need for a great solidarity of souls, hearts and endeavours: it needs the kind of solidarity that is capable of overcoming divisions and divergences, to be able consequently to attain a more just society”. He also added that “we need to oppose any form of dissolution of the basic cell of society [the family] and courageously indicate the strategies of its development, in such a way so to change the manifest situations of injustice, inequality, alienation and poverty”. He lastly urged Solidarnosc to “return to its own roots, to the ideals that inspired it as a trades union”, because workers, now as then – he said – “await aid in the defence of their just rights”. SOLIDARNOSC: CARDINAL LUSTIGER, AN HISTORIC EXPERIENCE THAT TRANSCENDS TIME. “The experience of Solidarnosc was born within the Polish people as a vital response to the long Soviet oppression”. But the Polish events were “more than a popular and national revolt”. “This ‘more than’ has turned Solidarnosc into an historic experience of immense value, whose theoretical and practical interest far transcends the circumstances of its appearance”, said Cardinal JEAN-MARIE LUSTIGER, archbishop emeritus of Paris, speaking in Warsaw at the international conference held to mark the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the “Solidarnosc” movement on 29-30 August. The cardinal then participated in the celebrations held in Gdansk, presided over by the historic leader of the movement Lech Walesa. Lustiger underlined the intimate relation that existed between the experience of Solidarnosc, John Paul II and the Christian thought strongly rooted in the Polish people. “Without this Pope – he said –, without the strength of his words and his presence, Solidarnosc would not have been possible”. And referring to just this experience, Pope BENEDICT XVI, in his letter to Archbishop Dziwisz, his special representative at the celebrations, wrote: “All of us realise what great significance the emergence of this trades union had in the history of Poland and in the history of Europe as a whole”. And he added: “I also know it was a just cause, and the fall of the Berlin Wall and the entry into the European Union of the countries that has remained behind that wall after the Second World War is the finest proof of that”.