A pilgrimage from Krakow to the Holy Land, in memory of John Paul II, has been made in recent days. Led by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Metropolitan of Krakow, it visited the main holy places and sanctuaries, starting out from the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. During the pilgrimage, in which some 700 Polish Catholics participated, the cardinal, who served as private secretary of John Paul II during the whole of his pontificate, blessed a mosaic portraying John Paul II, in memory of the Pope’s jubilee pilgrimage, at Tabgha, the gift of the association “Civitas Christiana” and the Commissariat of the Holy Land of Krakow, and the new bronze doors of the sanctuary of the Primacy of Peter, the work of Czeslaw Dzwigaj. The pilgrims also met the Right Rev. Fouad Twal, auxiliary bishop of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Msgr. Sabbah, and the Custodian of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who conferred on the cardinal “the Golden Cross of the Pilgrim”. The visit to Bethlehem also enabled the pilgrims to understand better the difficult situation of Christians living in the territories of the Palestinian Authority. They were also able to visit some of the charitable projects being conducted by the Church in the Holy Land, such as the orphanage “Home of Peace”, run by the Polish Sisters of St. Elizabeth.
