It was like a carnival, a political campaign, a crusade and an enormous Polish wedding all in one. Almost from the moment his Alitalia 727 plane deposited Pope John Paul II in Warsaw and he knelt, in his gleaming white cas sock, to kiss the earth of Poland, his countrymen converged upon him in joyful and dumbfounding millions. Babies, brought to be kissed or blessed. Grandmothers in bandannas. The teenage young flocking to him like rock fans afflicted with Beatlemania. Hard-faced coal miners, pampered by the workers' party, gathering around him by tens of thousands and roaring out the words...
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