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Pope Calls for Peace from City where He Saw War
Sat Aug 17, 4:18 PM ET
By Philip Pullella

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - Pope John Paul ( news - web sites), on what may be his last trip to his native Poland, issued a ringing plea Saturday for an end to war and suffering around the world, in a sermon from the city where he endured Nazi repression.

The Pope, 82, has returned to Poland for the ninth time since his 1978 election to spend four days in Krakow, where in World War II he was a forced laborer for German occupiers and later, as a priest, resisted decades of communist rule.

The Pontiff chose the theme of mercy and forgiveness for the homily of his first mass on this visit, which for him will be rich in nostalgic recollection. Given his advanced age and failing health, John Paul may never see his homeland again.

"How greatly today's world needs God's mercy," the Pope said during a dedication ceremony for a new church on the outskirts of Krakow in southern Poland.

"In every continent, from the depth of human suffering, a cry for mercy seems to rise up," he said.

The new concrete church, shaped like a ship parting the waves, is dedicated to Saint Faustina, a mystic Polish nun who died in 1938 and who has special significance for the Pope.

The Pope prayed at a church on the site every day on his way to work in a soda plant commandeered by the Nazi war machine. In a faltering voice, the Pope spoke of the makeshift wooden boots he wore at the time, when leather was in short supply.

"Who would have thought that someone in those wooden shoes would one day be consecrating this Basilica?" he said.

GREAT CHANGE

The Solvay chemical factory is now a modern cinema complex, evidence of the changes in Poland over the 13 years since communism gave way to free-market democracy in a historical shift the Pope's leadership is seen as having helped to inspire.

After surviving the violence of 20th century Europe and playing his part in the revolutionary changes of 1989 that transformed his homeland and the rest of eastern Europe, the Pope remains deeply troubled by the persistence of misery.

"Where hatred and thirst for revenge dominate, where war brings suffering and death to the innocent, there the grace of mercy is needed in order to settle human minds and hearts and to bring about peace," he said.

The Pope appeared exceptionally well when he arrived on Friday, buoyed by a tumultuous reception from crowds in his beloved Krakow.

Saturday morning he seemed more tired but recovered his strength in the afternoon when he made an unexpected address from the window of his residence and delighted crowds below by referring to their boisterous chanting.

"When you're young, you're young and nothing is going to change that," he quipped.

Both current President Aleksander Kwasniewski and former president Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity union that helped toppled communism, said his mind was still razor sharp although his body was showing the trials of time and illness.

"He is in very good intellectual shape. Of course, there are these health problems connected to his age and illnesses. We have to respect him because he is making an effort that would not be an easy task even for a younger and healthier man," Kwasniewski said after holding talks with the Pope.

Aides say the Pope is at the same time happy and nostalgic about spending time in the same palace where he lived as bishop before his election.

"There are memories around every corner in this building that make him happy," said spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

On his arrival in Poland Friday, he scotched talk he would retire in Poland and not return to the Vatican ( news - web sites).

Last week, a French newspaper reported the Pope would use his return home to quit and retreat to Poland's Tatra mountains. No Pope has retired willingly in seven centuries.

Some 200,000 people lined the streets to cheer the Pope as he traveled through Krakow Saturday. More than two million people are expected to attend an open-air mass in Krakow's sprawling Blonie park Sunday.

The Pope will round off the trip Monday by blessing a 400-year-old shrine at nearby Kalwaria-Zebrydowska, which he visited as a boy with his father. He will fly by helicopter over his birthplace of Wadowice before returning to Rome.

Link where the story came from

Here's a paragraph from the Pope's homily, and a link to the whole thing, for those interested. He sounds like he's been listening to Bowie's new album! Lol. I was just describing that album in another thread as being about "the feeling of earthling-smallness...the bafflement in this foreboding time...and here we are wanting to give our children a beautiful life."

For the record, I have no interest in converting anyone's religion or lack thereof, but in highlighting some of the breadth of loving people of different traditions, within whom our ideas live too, although perhaps expressed in slightly different ways.

And I happen to love this old guy. Here's what he's saying:

quote:

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This proclamation, this confession of trust in the all-powerful love of God, is especially needed in our own time, when mankind is experiencing bewilderment in the face of many manifestations of evil. The invocation of God's mercy needs to rise up from the depth of hearts filled with suffering, apprehension and uncertainty, and at the same time yearning for an infallible source of hope. That is why we have come here today, to this Shrine of Lagiewniki, in order to glimpse once more in Christ the face of the Father: "the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation" (2 Cor 1:3). With the eyes of our soul, we long to look into the eyes of the merciful Jesus, in order to find deep within his gaze the reflection of his inner life, as well as the light of grace which we have already received so often, and which God holds out to us anew each day and on the last day.

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Here's the whole thing:

Full text of the homily

Love,
Maria