A Triumphal Return

The Pope and his people draw power from each other

  • Share
  • Read Later

(4 of 10)

that he would bless any crosses that the young congregation had brought. Suddenly thousands of crucifixes of all shapes and sizes were thrust out of the crowd and waved aloft. Said the Pontiff: "I hope you will be faithful to this sign always."

In the continuing heat, the Pope went by helicopter to Gniezno and told the welcoming crowd there with a grin, "It was so hot in Rome that I decided I must come to Poland." It was at Gniezno, where Polish Christendom's first see was established in A.D. 1000, that John Paul made his sweeping opening to the East. The day was Pentecost, the feast marking the birth of the New Testament church, when the Apostles began to speak in a profusion of languages. This miracle of tongues was held as proof of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the church, and is also interpreted as an early sign of Christianity's future mission to the world.

In that context, John Paul speculated on the ethnic significance of his election as Pope last Oct. 16. "Is it not the intention of the Holy Spirit that this Polish Pope—this Slav Pope—should at this precise moment manifest the spiritual unity of Christian Europe? Although there are two great traditions, that of the West and that of the East, to which it is indebted, through both of them Christian Europe professes 'one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.' "

The Pope was quoting the Apostle Paul, who in Ephesians 4:5-6 called on first-generation church congregations to overcome their internal divisions. In doing so, he enunciated an ecumenical policy of broad social import. Vatican analysts had already expected that this Pope from the East might seek to heal the 11th century break with the Eastern Orthodox churches more ardently than to mend the 16th century split-off of Protestantism. The Pope's sermon surveyed the centuries of missionary activity in present-day Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and, finally, Soviet Lithuania.

That night a papal sing-along for young people occurred. Before he put aside his prepared text to lead the music, the Pope lectured his audience on Polish Catholic culture. "Be nobly proud of it," he said. "Multiply it. Hand it on to future generations." A bittersweet moment came as John Paul led the young people in a mountaineer's ballad: "Don't you miss your country, your fields and pastures, your valleys and streams?" In the song, the mountaineer cannot return because he has been called to heaven, and no one missed the parallel with "Lolek" Wojtyla, who had been called away to duty in Rome.

The Pope spent three days in the shrine city, Czestochowa, where he led the ceremony of consecration to the Virgin. Inside the fortress-like Jasna Gora (Bright Mountain) monastery is the Black Madonna painting, attributed by legend to St. Luke. "There are people and nations. Mother," the Pontiff prayed, "that I would like to say to you by name. I entrust them to you in silence. I entrust them to you in the way that you know best." Poles believe that prayer to her image by the Jasna Gora monks staved off invading Swedish armies in 1655. Since 1656 Mary has been proclaimed "Queen of Poland," a title that in today's context implies that Polish sovereignty resides beyond the Communist Party.

It is known that John Paul

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10