“Poland is awaiting this visit with enthusiasm and filial devotion. We are grateful to Benedict XVI for remembering his predecessor at every opportunity; thanks to him, the memory of John Paul II will always stay alive. But we are also grateful to the Pope for the simplicity and the straightforwardness of his words, for his fight against secularisation”. With these words, the archbishop of Warsaw-Prague, mgr. Slawoj Leszek Glód, describes to SIR the mood of the Polish people the day before Benedict XVI’s arrival in the country. In the Polish bishops’ memory, states mgr. Glód, the appeal made by the Pope during the visit ad limina last November is still alive: “Defend your national and Catholic identity!” “A clear, powerful imperative comments the bishop -; an encouragement and at the same time a command. We expect that on the next few days Benedict XVI will recall and expound on it”. What will be the highlights of the Pope’s journey? “A moving moment will be the visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau (May 28th) states the bishop -. No event has ever attracted so many foreign journalists to our country as this part of the Pope’s journey”. But the young are those most anxiously awaiting: “my diocese asked for 130 thousand tickets for the meeting that Benedict XVI will have with the young in Cracow on May 27th; I understand the total requests have already exceeded 300 thousand”.
