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"You Are Eloquent Witnesses of God's Mercy" KRAKOW, Poland, MAY 28, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI visited the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Lagiewniki on Saturday, after his visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Kalwaria. At Lagiewniki the Pope prayed at the tomb of St. Faustina Kowalska, where Karol Wojtyla often went as a laborer and later as an underground seminarian. Benedict XVI then went to the basilica, where 800 sick people awaited him. Here is a Vatican translation of his address to them. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am very pleased to be able to...

Polish hilltop shrine centuries old center of devotion to Passion, Mary By Jonathan Luxmoore 5/17/2006 Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com) WARSAW, Poland – The hilltop Marian shrine of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska has been a center of devotion to the Passion and to Mary for four centuries. When Pope John Paul II prayed at the shrine in 2002 during his last homecoming, he said he had found strength at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and counted on Polish Catholics to continue coming to the shrine "to ask Mary to obtain for us unity of faith, unity of mind and spirit, unity in families and unity in...

Jewish group slams Polish religious rite as anti-Semitic April 27, 2006 WARSAW -- A Jewish rights group on Wednesday protested to the Polish government over an Easter ritual held at a famous Roman Catholic sanctuary in southern Poland, claiming that the ceremony was tainted by anti-Semitism. The Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Polish foreign minister Stefan Meller to discipline organizers of the Stations of the Cross ceremony at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, a site to be visited by Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to Poland in May. Shimon Samuels, director for International Relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks down Nazi...