What exactlay had he gone to Warsaw, Poland to celebrate? Was it the millinium, Saint Stanslaus, or just his coming into the honor of being Pope? It could be none of these, please help. GOD BLESS

-- Jeff Hebert (abear22@hotmail.com), February 01, 1999

Answers

Response to The Pope's speach in 1979 in Warsaw in Victory Square.

Every papal trip is primarily pastoral (or rarely a pilgrimage, as in the case of the Holy Land). As successor of St. Peter, he carries out Jesus's commission that he "strengthen/confirm the brethren." As an apostle's successor, he "goes out to all the word to tell the Good News," to drive out fear, and to exhort leaders to treat people with justice.

In 1979, there must also have been an element of joyful homecoming, and a celebration of the wonderful news that, for the first time, a son of Poland was privileged to be pope.

Noted Catholic writer Russell Shaw describes things this way ----

"His visits to his Polish homeland in 1979 (June 2-10) and 1983 (June 16-23) bolstered Polish Catholicism and kindled Polish resistance to communism, while his determined support for the Solidarity labor movement gave his countrymen a vehicle for their resistance. The result was a growing nonviolent liberation movement leading to the dramatic developments of 1989—the collapse of communist regimes and the emergence of democracy in Poland and other countries, the fall of the Berlin Wall —- and in time to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War."

-- (&@&.&), December 29, 2001.