” “”I have come to Poland, the beloved country of my great Predecessor John Paul II, to draw as he used to from this climate of faith in which you live and to ‘transmit to you some spiritual gifts so that they will invigorate you’. I trust that my wondering, these days, ‘will encourage the faith that we share, you and I”. The Pope’s second speech on Polish soil began under the aegis of John Paul II and with the words of the apostle Peter. As he met the local priests in the Cathedral of Warsaw, Benedict XVI recalled the “painful history of your capital and your country” and the “ordeals” the Polish “suffered not so long ago”. “We remember with gratitude those who have not given up to the forces of darkness, from them we learn the courage of consistency and the perseverance in the endorsement of Christ’s Gospel”, the invitation of the Pope, who mentioned “the heroic witnesses of faith who offered their lives to God and men, canonised saints and also ordinary men”, including card. Wyszynski, “the Primate of the Millennium”, as he is known in Poland, who “faithfully served the Church even amidst painful and long ordeals”. At the beginning of his speech, after quoting the Letter to the Romans (1,8-12), Benedict XVI greeted in particular card. Jozef Glemp, archbishop of Warsaw and primate of Poland, “to whom I give my most heart-felt congratulations for the 50th anniversary of his ordination which falls today”.
