Awaiting Benedict XVI

In the final message of the permanent episcopal Council chaired by Archbishop JÒZEF MICHALIK at Jasna Gòra on 2 May, the bishops of Poland invite the faithful “to make intensive preparations for the great event of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Poland (25-29 May) and to “pray fervently for this intention in parishes and religious communities”. To mark the visit of Benedict XVI, Polish premier KAZIMIERZ MARCINKIEZICZ decided, a few days ago, to close all offices and schools on 26 May to permit everyone to follow the celebration of morning mass in Pilsudski Square in the centre of Warsaw. In the afternoon Benedict XVI will be at the sanctuary of the “Black Madonna” of Jasna Gòra, where his meeting with men and women religious, seminarians and representatives of societies of consecrated life will take place. Below we report on some events and anniversaries concerning Poland at the present time and the contents of an international colloquium held in Rome on the theme “From the Pope from Poland to the Pope from Germany”. UNDER THE PROTECTION OF MARY FOR 350 YEARS. The Polish bishops have particularly hailed, as a happy event, the 350th anniversary of the “entrusting of Poland to the protection of the Mother of God by King Jan Kazimirez”: it was an event that marked the spiritual destiny of the Polish people in the sometimes dramatic upheavals of the country’s history over the last few centuries. The bishops have also invited the faithful to remember two other anniversaries: the 25th of the attempt on the life of John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square and his miraculous survival from the shots fired by Ali Agca, and the 25th anniversary of the death of another figure revered in Poland: that of the “Primate of the Millennium”, Cardinal Stefano Wyszynski, who was a strong and clear guide of the Polish Church in the difficult years of the Communist regime, and for whom the “House in memory of Cardinal Stefano Wyszynski” has now been consecrated. The bishops also discussed “Radio Maryja”, one of three most listened-to radio stations in the country, run by the Redemptorist Fathers; an agreement for the pastoral care of the radio station was reached. A medal for “meritorious service in the works of apostleship” was also established, and awarded to Polish Catholic Action. PROCESS OF RECONCILIATION. “Both Karol Wojtyla and Joseph Ratzinger experienced the atrocities of the war, though they saw them from different angles. Both were inspired by the same spirit of building, after the war, a peaceful world based on mutual reconciliation according to the teaching of the Gospel”, declared Hanna Suchocka , Polish ambassador to the Holy See, in opening the colloquium on the two Popes, jointly sponsored with the German embassy to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the German-Polish peace treaty and the closing of the German-Polish “Year” that sets the seal on the progress of friendly relations between the two countries. “The rapprochement between Germans and Poles – said Suchocka – has represented a model on how relations between nations can be reconstructed”. Her opposite number, German ambassador Gerd Westdickenberg , recalled that “30% of the Poles have changed their attitude to Germany” and this “also contributed to the providential design of the nomination as successor of Peter of a son of Germany, Cardinal Ratzinger”. “On both sides – he added – efforts have been made to promote forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is the power of God acting in history”. One of the two main speakers at the colloquium, the German Bernhard Vogel , chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and former President of Thuringia and Rhine-Palatinate – expressly spoke of a “miracle”. “After the ‘miracle’ of the election of Wojtyla – he said – now we have the second ‘miracle’ of a German pope. What is this if not a ‘joke’ of the Holy Spirit, who wants our two peoples to make peace with each other?”. FROM THE ENMITY OF HISTORY TO FRIENDSHIP. The “German-Polish Youth Association” is one of the signs of this re-pacification: it now has 1.5 million members – recalled Vogel. And the other speaker, the Polish Wladyslaw Bartoszewski , former Foreign Minister, ambassador, university professor, and “colleague” of Karol Wojtyla both as journalist on the weekly “Tygodnik Powszechny” and as professor of history at the University of Lublin, recalled the message of the Polish Bishops in 1965, in response to those of the German bishops, and subsequent contacts between the two episcopates that sanctioned the start of renewed friendship between the two nations. Vogel recalled that on Poland’s entry into the EU in 2004, the historic phrase that circulated in the country was “Now we’ve come home”. It was the realization of the dream of Pope John Paul II: a “common home”, a Europe that “breathes with both lungs, that of the East and that of the West”.