(9 of 9)
Biggest and least likely prize is Vatican recognition of Poland's right to the former German provinces that were incorporated in Poland after World War II. Every Pole—Communist or Catholic—favors permanent recognition by the Vatican in terms of church administration for three new dioceses in the west, which would be a powerful confirmation of Poland's right to the area; Wyszynski himself enhanced his prestige immeasurably at home when he broke the Vatican rules to confirm the appointments of vicars made by the Communist government while he was imprisoned. Vatican policy was not to make any such appointments until a peace treaty has been signed, and German lobbyists have been working overtime to forestall any Vatican action along these lines.
Wyszynski will also probably ask the Vatican for appointment of a second cardinal—perhaps Bishop Klepacz of Lodz —thus restoring the traditional number of cardinals for Poland and strengthening his Catholic administration.
Even if the cardinal goes home emptyhanded, it is certain that he will go as the top man on the church's firing line, and with the respect and gratitude of the Vatican statesmen, from Pius XII on down. For no country in the Roman Catholic world knows such a flowering of the faith as Poland today, and no country owes so much to a modern prince of the church for merely being alive.
* No kin.