Poles Pray for Most Famous Native Son

Yahoo! News ^ | Sat, Apr 02, 2005 | MONIKA SCISLOWSKA

[lizol]

Poles Pray for Most Famous Native Son

Sat Apr 2, 9:59 AM ET Europe - AP

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer

WADOWICE, Poland - Poles prayed for Pope John Paul II on Saturday with grief over their beloved native son's approaching death mixed with a wish to see an end to his long and public suffering.

At a noon Mass in St. Mary's basilica in Wadowice, the southern Polish town of 20,000 where the pope was born 84 years ago, the Rev. Krzysztof Glowka told a packed church that "we are here to be with John Paul in his agony, to experience, together with him, this great mystery of life that is death."

"Now as a sick and dying person he is teaching us the most important lesson, the lesson of dying and the lesson of perseverance," he said.

In nearby Krakow, an old friend of the pope, Danuta Michalowska, 82, said her grief had kept her from sleeping for two days. But she had taken solace in a personal letter the pope sent her just last week.

"It was just as if he had written it 20 years ago," said Michalowska, who acted in an underground Krakow theater with young Karol Wojtyla during the Nazi occupation of Poland in the early 1940s. "He joked in the letter and kidded me, as he always did."

Teresa Zyczkowska, whose children were baptized by the pope, gathered with a small group at first light to pay tribute beneath the so-called papal window in the Krakow Curia, where John Paul lived as an archbishop.

Zyczkowska said even after his appointment to the Vatican, the pope retained an informal manner with those he knew in Poland. He told friends "uncle is still uncle, and so we didn't change our way of speaking to him and writing to him," she said.

Now, "we are very sad for him and all the church because we believe it is a very big loss for the church," she said.

St. Mary's in Wadowice stayed open overnight as people flocked from around Poland and outside the country to the pope's hometown to pay their respects.

"If there were a chance for him to get well, I would want him to live until he is 200," said electrician Ryszard Kozak, 45, leaving an early Mass. "But it's just human selfishness to wish for him to continue on like this if it means more suffering."

Many began to think of what will happen after his death, some voicing hope the pontiff's body be returned to his native land for burial.

Most popes in recent centuries have been buried in the St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, his wishes have not been made public and many in Poland are speculating he may be laid to rest alongside Polish kings in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral.

Some voiced hope that even if the pope is laid to rest in Italy, his heart may be interred in the Polish cathedral.

"It is not possible that he'll be buried in Krakow — only in Rome," Kozak said. "But it would be very nice to have at least a part of this great person in his own country. Maybe just his heart."

The pope is deeply loved in mainly Roman Catholic Poland, where his 26-year pontificate has served as a source of great national pride and where gratitude is still strong for his role in helping bring down communism in 1989-90 and freeing Poland from domination by the Soviet Union.

"John Paul II's reign was a golden age for Poland, and I don't want to think about the fact that this time will come to an end," said Wlodzimierz Koc, 63, at Warsaw's St. Anne's Cathedral.

Polish newspapers on Saturday were filled with news of little else.

"The Holy Father is close to God," read the headline in the daily Rzeczpospolita, its pages filled with photographs of people worldwide praying for the pontiff. The daily Gazeta Wyborcza's headline read "John Paul II is leaving."

Worshippers kneel as they pray for the recovery of Pope John Paul II in the church of St. Mary in his hometown Wadowice, southern Poland, on Saturday, April 2, 2005. Pope John Paul II's condition remains unchanged and 'very grave,' and he began showing the first signs of losing consciousness at dawn Saturday, the Vatican said. The pope was baptized in the church of St. Mary.


SEA OF DEVOTION: Around two million Catholics gather to celebrate holy mass with Pope John Paul II in Krakow, southern Poland, last August

[MikefromOhio]

the man fought the Nazi's AND the Communists. It is amazing what this man (and those of his generation) have lived through.

[goldwater64]

Thank you so much for the posting, since I am half Polish, half German and a convert to Catholicism 5 years ago. He is the only Pope I can remember and we need to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet tomorrow (3 April) wherever we are. Praised be Jesus Christ.

[dfwgator]

the man fought the Nazi's AND the Communists.

He also fought the toughest enemy yet, secular humanism.

[lizol]

Eastern European ping list

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FRmail me to be added or removed from this Eastern European ping list

[MikefromOhio]

which is a result of the other two.....at least I think they are.

or they were a result of secular humanism brough along by the like of Engels and Marx....

[dfwgator]

As a Polish-American, what really touches me, is to see the young people of Poland, many who have little knowledge of what life under Communism was like, who understand what this Pope has meant to the country. Poland's future is bright indeed.

[dfwgator]

Got Zot?

[lizol]

I've reported that already. I think we all should pray to God for people like True Free Thinker - may the Almighty shows him His mercy.

[lizol]

BE NOT AFFRAID

[betty boop]

Thank you ever so much for posting this lizol.

Today, many of us Christians wish to be especially close to the Pope in our hearts and minds. These lines from his great encyclical Veritatis Splendor have been in my reflections today:

"The splendour of truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator and, in a special way, in man, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26). Truth enlightens man's intelligence and shapes his freedom, leading him to know and love the Lord. Hence the Psalmist prays: "Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord" (Ps 4:6).

"INTRODUCTION
"Jesus Christ, the true light that enlightens everyone

"1. Called to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, "the true light that enlightens everyone" (Jn 1:9), people become "light in the Lord" and "children of light" (Eph 5:8), and are made holy by "obedience to the truth" (1 Pet 1:22).

"This obedience is not always easy. As a result of that mysterious original sin, committed at the prompting of Satan, the one who is "a liar and the father of lies" (Jn 8:44), man is constantly tempted to turn his gaze away from the living and true God in order to direct it towards idols (cf. 1 Thes 1:9), exchanging "the truth about God for a lie" (Rom 1:25). Man's capacity to know the truth is also darkened, and his will to submit to it is weakened. Thus, giving himself over to relativism and scepticism (cf. Jn 18:38), he goes off in search of an illusory freedom apart from truth itself.

"But no darkness of error or of sin can totally take away from man the light of God the Creator. In the depths of his heart there always remains a yearning for absolute truth and a thirst to attain full knowledge of it. This is eloquently proved by man's tireless search for knowledge in all fields. It is proved even more by his search for the meaning of life. The development of science and technology, this splendid testimony of the human capacity for understanding and for perseverance, does not free humanity from the obligation to ask the ultimate religious questions. Rather, it spurs us on to face the most painful and decisive of struggles, those of the heart and of the moral conscience."

The Holy Father has ever walked with Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is with him now. May God eternally bless His faithful and devoted son Karol Wojtyla, Ioannes Paulus PP. II.

[virgil]

the man fought the Nazi's AND the Communists

I heard that he also takes a position against this liberation theology that they're practicing in south america. I don't know much about that though. The Pope probably has a few enemies. It may explain some of the crap circulation on the internet that feeds the conspiracy rumor mill about the catholic church. I heard people call the Pope the Antichrist. I was never aware that the pope was so involved in bring down the soviets. God Bless him.

[NYer]

A woman wipes away tears during a special Mass for Pope John Paul II's health in a church in Warsaw, Poland, Friday April 1, 2005. Poles packed churches Friday to pray for the recovery of the Pope after the health of the nation's most famous son took a dramatic turn for the worse. The Vatican said the 84-year-old pontiff suffered heart failure during treatment for a urinary tract infection and was in 'very serious' condition. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Catholic Ping
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[Grzegorz 246]

I've just heard that Pope is dead...

[SpikeMike]

Yes, he has died....

[NYer]

Thank you so much for the posting, since I am half Polish, half German and a convert to Catholicism 5 years ago.

Welcome Home!

He is the only Pope I can remember and we need to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet tomorrow (3 April) wherever we are. Praised be Jesus Christ.

The message of mercy is that God loves us "all of us" no matter how great our sins. He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.

Encourage souls to say the Chaplet which I have given you (Diary, 1541). Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death (Diary, 687). When they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the Merciful Savior (Diary, 1541). Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy (Diary, 687). I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy (Diary, 687). Through the Chaplet you will obtain everything, if what you ask for is compatible with My will (Diary, 1731).

Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world (Diary, 476).

John Paul II may be alluded to in the famous diaries of St. Faustina Kowalska, who quoted the Lord as saying, "I bear a special love for Poland and if she will be obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming" (Diary 1732).

[NYer]

I've just heard that Pope is dead...

Three O'Clock - the Holy Hour!

It is likewise appropriate to pray the Chaplet during the "Hour of Great Mercy" three o'clock each afternoon (recalling the time of Christ's death on the cross). In His revelations to Saint Faustina, Our Lord asked for a special remembrance of His Passion at that hour.

God speed beloved John Paul II!

[RobRoy]

Thanks for the ping, but I consider the pope to be a political position. I am not a fan. My born again wife is ex-Catholic, she isn't either.

I understand he was pretty old, but I had no personal relationship with him so it is hard to really feel much about this.