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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 100-7-144
TITLE:             Poland on the Eve of Papal Visit: Itinerary -- Preparations -- The First Leg
BY:                Celt
DATE:              1983-6-14
COUNTRY:           (n/a)
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  RAD

--- Begin ---

X/9 P -- POLAND ON THE EVE OF PAPAL VISIT: ITINERARY
-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-601

Munich, 14 June 1983 (RAD/Celt)

Pope John Paul II will be returning to his native Poland on
June 16. This will be his second visit since his elevation to the
papacy on 16 October 1978. The first papal homecoming trip took
place four years ago, from 2 to 10 June 1979, and included four
major cities: Warsaw (June 2), the ancient religious capital of
Gniezno (June 3), Czestochowa (June 4), and Cracow (June 7).

Originally, the pontiff was scheduled to arrive last August
solemnly, to inaugurate the 600th anniversary celebrations of the
Jasna Gora Pauline Monastery in Czestochowa and its revered icon of
the Black Virgin. Due, however, to the still highly explosive
political situation in the country at that time -- the date coincided
closely with the second anniversary of Solidarity -- he agreed to
postpone his visit until a later date, and the "jubilee" ceremonies
were extended to last for more than a year. The first official
announcement of the papal visit was published on 8 November 1982,
following a meeting between Poland's Catholic primate, Jozef Cardinal
Glemp, and the country's military ruler, General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
The date for John Paul's arrival in Poland was definitely set for
16 June 1983. The detailed program of the visit was disclosed in a
communiqué issued simultaneously in Warsaw and in the Vatican on May
17. According to the communiqué the itinerary will comprise the
following principal points:

The Itinerary. The Pontiff will arrive in Warsaw in the late
afternoon of June 16 (Thursday), where he will be given an official
welcome by the primate and by the "highest authorities of the People's
Republic," including State Council President Henryk Jablonski. His
first, official function will be a Requiem Mass in memory of Poland's
late primate, Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski (who died in May 1981),
celebrated at the city's St. John's Cathedral. That event will be
followed by a visit to the sanctuary of the Mother of God the
Benevolent, the patroness of the capital.

Significantly, the official meeting with state authorities
will take place only in the morning of the second day, June 17, and
will be held at the Belvedere Palace, the official residence of the
head of state. The, early afternoon will be devoted to a visit to the
Church of the Capuchin Monks where an urn containing the heart of
King John III Sobieski -- the savior of Vienna from the Turks in
1683 -- is kept, and to an "ecumenical meeting" obviously involving
representatives of other Christian denominations, to be held at
the primate's residence. Later in the afternoon, the Pope will
meet with the senate and the teaching staff of Lublin's Catholic
University (KUL), of which he had been a member for many years. It
should be noted that the pontiff reportedly insisted that Lublin
be included in his itinerary. The KUL Rector, the Rev. Albert
Krapiec, recently disclosed that he was in possession of a
papal letter urging him to make "every effort to persuade the
authorities" to make this visit possible -- apparently to no
avail. During the meeting Pope John Paul II will be made an
honorary doctor by the KUL Senate.

[page 2]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-602

June 17 will end with an open-air Mass and papal sermon near
Warsaw's spacious sports stadium. Victory Square, in the Old City,
which was the scene of a similar event during the first papal visit
in June 1979, was "not available" this year. Known as the location
of the "floral cross" in Wyszynski's memory that became the
occasion for peaceful antiregime demonstrations in the first month
of martial rule, it was fenced off one year ago by the authorities
under the pretext of "street repairs."

The Pope will leave Warsaw on Saturday, June 18, by helicopter
(the chief means of transportation for the rest of his trip)
heading for the Franciscan monastery of Niepokalanow, to pay tribute
to its founder, St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe (elevated to saintdom
in October 1982). The next stop on the itinerary will be
Czestochowa, whose Jasna Gora Pauline Monastery will serve as the
permanent papal residence for the next four days, with helicopter
trips made to various places as the occasion necessitates. In the
evening of June 18, a Mass will be celebrated by the primate and other
bishops, followed by a meeting with young people arriving from all
parts of the country. It is known that the pontiff is particularly
concerned about the future of the younger generations.

The main highlight of the entire visit will be the great
jubilee celebration at Jasna Gora on Sunday, June 19, marking the
600th anniversary of Poland's most revered religious shrine and
of its most holy icon, the Black Madonna. The festivities will
include a morning Mass the Pope will concelebrate with the
"delegates of foreign episcopates" (reportedly including several
Catholic Church heads of East European countries -- a "summit meeting,"
as it were), and another Mass celebrated in the afternoon which Cardinal
Macharski will preside over, during which the four most revered
icons of the Madonna from various parts of the country are to be
solemnly "crowned" by the pontiff.

On Monday, June 20, a helicopter will take John Paul II to the city
of Poznan, the site of the workers' riots of 1956. The short
visit is to include an open-air Mass and a papal sermon in the
Legi Debinskie public park, and a visit to the city's cathedral.
The rest of the day will be spent in the Silesian city of Katowice,
where the Pope will celebrate another Mass "before the miraculous
image of the Madonna of Piekary" which will be brought to Katowice
from Piekary Slaskie especially for the occasion -- obviously the
result of a compromise struck between the bishops and the regime
which, for various reasons, vetoed the planned papal trip to
that sanctuary, the goal of annual miners' pilgrimages.

Back in Czestochowa for the night, the pontiff will spend the next
day (Tuesday, June 21) in Wroclaw and at Mount St. Ann near
Opole. In Wroclaw, one of Solidarity's main strongholds, an
open-air Mass will be celebrated at the city's racetrack in the morning
while at Mt. St. Ann vespers are to be sung near the basilica
commemorating the Polish uprisings against the Germans in the
early 1920s.

X9/P (2) -- POLAND ON THE EVE OF PAPAL VISIT: ITINERARY
-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-603

The pontiff's visit to Cracow -- his long-time residence
as Bishop and Archbishop -- will be of special interest
for more than one reason. Upon arrival there in the evening of
June 21, he will address the population at Cracow's "village
green," Blonia Krakowskie, the same place that he met his former
parishioners in 1979. On Wednesday, June 22, the beatification of Father
Rafal Kalinowski, a 19th century Carmelite friar imprisoned for
taking part in the 1863 Polish uprising against czarist Russia and
now another Polish candidate for saintdom, is to take place in
the morning. The afternoon will be devoted to a visit to Cracow's
industrial suburb of Nowa Huta, where a new church is to be
dedicated to St. Maksymilian Kolbe. Nowa Huta is perhaps the most
sensitive spot on the entire itinerary -- it has been the scene
recently of mass antiregime demonstrations with at least one fatality.
Moreover, designed by Poland's Communist rulers as a model "city
without God," it had to struggle for decades for permission to
build its first place of worship. It was the Pope who, as the
local archbishop, finally laid its cornerstone in October 1967.
Now, he will be coming to dedicate the second new church there.

Still on the same day, June 22, the Pope is scheduled to pay a visit
to the Jagiellonian University with its Papal Academy (re-established
in December 1981) and attend the closing ceremonies of Cracow's
provincial Church Synod.

June 23, the last day in Cracow -- and in Poland, for that
matter -- was recently added to the original schedule,
apparently in order to give the Pope' some private time for
rest and for meeting with friends. The official timetable,
providing only for the formal farewell ceremony attended by
"the highest state and Church authorities," leaves room for
speculation that the pontiff might plan to invite Walesa to meet
him on that day in Cracow (other sources suggest that the meeting
might take place in Czestochowa, instead ). It was also suggested
that the Pope might like to use his free time in Cracow to make a
brief trip to his native town of Wadowice, only a short distance
away from that city.

The following two maps may help the reader to picture the
itinerary of both papal visits. A map depicting Poland's
ecclesiastical division in ecclesiastical provinces and dioceses is also
supplied below.

[page 4]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-604

Pope John Paul's First Visit in Poland
2-10 June 1979

(map)

[page 5]

X/9 P (4) -- POLAND ON THE EVE OF PAPAL VISIT: ITINERARY
-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-605

Pope John Paul's Second Visit in Poland
16-23 June 1983

(map)

[page 6]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-606

POLAND

ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISION 
Note: The Lublin diocese is an "enclave"
of the Czestochow ecclesiastical province

(map)

[page 7]

X/9 P (6)-- POLAND ON THE EVE OF PAPAL VISIT: ITINERARY
-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-607

Church Preparations. Cardinal Glemp set up a special Organizing
Committee to prepare the Warsaw Archdiocese for the Papal visit,
which apparently also serves as the central organizing committee for
the entire trip. Separate local committees were established in the
other dioceses that the Pope will visit. The Warsaw Organizing
Committee is headed by Bishop Wladyslaw Miziolek, with Bishop Zbigniew
Jozef Kraszewski and Msgr. Zdzislaw Krol as Deputy Chairmen and
Reverend Grzegorz Kalwarczyk as Secretary. Bishop Kazimierz Romaniuk
is the committee's representative for liaison with the state
authorities, while Msgr. Franciszek Borowiec is in charge of arrangements at
the Warsaw Archbishops' Palace. The committee has 12 different
sections, with the following Chairmen: Msgr. Boguslaw Bijak and Msgr.
Edward Majcher, pastoral affairs and religious instruction; Msgr.
Tadeusz Uszynski youth; Msgr. Jerzy Zalewski and Reverend Wieslaw
Kadziela, liturgical matters; Reverend Andrzej Przekazinski, art and
decorations; Reverend Lucjan Swieszkowski, audio reports; Reverend
Tadeusz Karolak, Church, orderlies; Reverend Edward Zmijewski, traffic
and communications; Reverend Jozef Hass, supplies; Reverend Jerzy
Popieluszko, first aid; Msgr. Bronislaw Piasecki, information; Bishop
Zbigniew Jozef Kraszewski and Reverend Marian Racinski, donations; and
Reverend Waldemar Wojdecki, documentation.

In a communiqué published on June 2 the Warsaw Organizing
Committee issued detailed instructions on how the faithful should
prepare for the papal visit. The communiqué particularly emphasizes
that the visit should take place in an atmosphere of prayer, Christian
hope, deep faith, charity, and social unity. It adds that the visit
should be preceded by "days of expectancy" and prayer in all parishes.
As the Pope lands on Polish soil, the bells in all churches
throughout the country shall be rung for 10 minutes. By June 15 all houses,
street and wayside chapels are to be decked with flowers, as should be
religious and national symbols, and these are to remain throughout
the duration of the visit. All are encouraged to line the streets
through which the papal cavalcade will move. Flowers are to be strewn
on the street before the Pope arrives or held aloft to greet him, but
not thrown at the cavalcade.

All are invited to attend the central liturgical celebrations in
the Warsaw Sports Stadium. No official invitations will be required.
Inhabitants of Warsaw are encouraged to display their hospitality by
offering shelter for the night to family and friends wishing to
attend the celebrations. All the churches in the capital will be
open throughout the two nights the Pope is there to provide shelter
and hot tea for those with nowhere else to go. All-night prayer vigils
will be held. Pilgrims are encouraged to come to the central
celebrations in organized parish groups, and all should wear gala uniforms
or festive attire. Active participation in the liturgy is encouraged.
Those who are physically weaker should be attended with care. The
instructions of the orderlies, as well as of the state traffic police,
are to be followed. All are encouraged to line the streets for the
Pope's departure from Warsaw.

On June 1 the Church committee met with its secular counterparts
at a conference in Warsaw's municipal administration office to put the
finishing touches on joint preparations for the visit (according to

[page 8]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-608

reports, 30,000 people connected with the Municipal Office are
involved in the preparations, organized into 13 different groups).
The details of the organization of traffic, medical, and sanitary
services, Church and state orderlies' service, food and beverage
supply (soft drinks only!) were discussed. Since Warsaw is the place
where the Pope will meet pilgrims from as many as 10 various dioceses
(Bialystok, Drohiczyn, Gdansk, Lublin, Lomza, Lodz, Olsztyn, Plock,
Siedlce, and Sandomierz-Radom) the exact access routes to and within
the city had to be agreed upon, parking lots established, etc. Along
the entire route of the papal motorcade, ambulances and special medical
patrols will be stationed; all hospitals will work around the clock;
and there will also be additional emergency health posts at the
railway stations. Tents with hospital beds will be erected around the
Sports Stadium. Several thousand people have volunteered for the
"social medical teams."

Regarding food supply, 1,800 additional stands will be in
operation during the visit. An adequate quantity of good food will be
supplied in time. Between June 16 and 18, all alcoholic drinks will
be banned from sale.

No invitations or special permits will be needed for the faithful
to join the celebrations. Individual invitations will be issued only
for "representatives of the highest institutions," the liturgical
services and lay Church activists. It was suggested that people should
bring folding seats with them and should leave all metal objects at
home (which seems to imply some stricter security measures).

The First Leg of the Pilgrimage. Before embarking on a detailed
description of the papal agenda in Warsaw, it may be useful to recall
a few facts and figures about the city's history and present-day
position in the country's life.

Poland's capital since the late 16th century, Warsaw is a
city of over 1,615,000 inhabitants, and enjoys the status of a
voivodship. From a small settlement which became a town in 1414, it
grew into the permanent residence of the dukes of Mazovia in the
15th century, becoming incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland in
1526. Due to its central location, it soon became a place for the
meetings of the Sejm, then for elections of kings. A turning point
in the history of the city came with the transfer in 1596 of the royal
seat from the burned Wawel Castle in Cracow to what is now known as
the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The honors were accompanied by disasters,
such as fires, plagues, and invasions, including one by the Swedes
during the 17th century when they destroyed two-thirds of the city.
Warsaw suffered again during the Kosciuszko Insurrection in 1794, its
eastern part, Praga, was burned down by the Russians, then the city
came under Prussian rule, declined economically, and became depopulated.
In 1806 Napoleon made it the capital of the Duchy of Warsaw) and in
1815 it became the capital of the Congress Kingdom, with the Russian
czar becoming King of Poland. It passed during World War I from the
Russians to the Germans but in November 1918 became free and the
capital of the independent Polish Republic. Its fate during World
War II, with the damage caused to it in September 1939, its two
uprisings, one in the ghetto in April-May 1943, another in August-

[page 9]

X/9 P (8) -- POLAND ON THE EVE OF PAPAL VISIT: ITINERARY
--PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-609

September 1944, and the subsequent total destruction, are still
fresh in memory. It has been reconstructed since the war at the
cost of considerable sacrifice by the whole nation.

Today, Warsaw is a center of political, economic, and cultural
life. Poland's postwar rulers have also succeeded in making it, at
least in part, an industrial town. At least three of its factories
merit mention: the Zeran Automobile Factory; the Warszawa Steel
Works; and the Ursus Mechanical Works, quite a big tractor factory,
which became world-famous for its part in the June 1976 riots over
drastic price increases. After August 1980, the Ursus plant became
one of the strongholds of the independent trade union movement,
Solidarity.

When the Pope arrives at Warsaw's Okecie International Airport
in the late afternoon (1700 hours) of June 16, he will be welcomed
by representatives of the highest state authorities, led by Professor
Henryk Jablonski in his capacity as Chairman of the Council of State,
and by the Polish episcopate under Jozef Cardinal Glemp. The papal
motorcade will then take the following route from the southwestern
outskirts to the very heart of the capital: Zwirko-and-Wigura Avenue,
the Lazienki Tract, Ujazdowskie Avenue, Nowy Swiat, Krakowskie
Przedmiescie, to reach the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in
the admirably reconstructed Old Town.

The cathedral is one of the oldest architectural monuments
of Warsaw. It is a three-nave Gothic church erected at the beginning
of the 14th century and enlarged in the second half of that century.
The cathedral was remodeled several times at later periods (late
19th century in English Gothic style). During the 1944 uprising,
The Germans burned it and then blew up the walls. The only parts
that escaped complete destruction were the chancel, small portions
of the nave walls and two chapels. Reconstructed after the war,
the cathedral was restored to its original, late 14th century Gothic
form.

The vaults of the cathedral, which are open to the public,
contain the remains of the Mazovian dukes. The church witnessed
the coronation of two kings: Stanislaw I Leszczynski, who later 
settled in France, and Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last King
of Poland.

The Pontiff's first official function during his pilgrimage
will be a solemn Requiem Mass in memory of his great mentor and
friend, the "Primate of the Millennium," Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski.
During the first papal trip to Poland in 1979, it was Wyszynski who
played host to the distinguished visitor. Since Wyszynski's death
on 28 May 1981 closely followed the May 13 attempt on the Pope's own
life, John Paul II was not able to attend the funeral in person;
and the Mass celebrated now in Wyszynksi's memory may be considered
the fulfillment of a heart-felt duty.

Stefan Wyszynski was born on 3 August 1901 in the village of
Zuzela in northeastern Poland (still a part of the Russian Empire at
that time). He was ordained a priest at the age of 23 and obtained

[page 10]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-610

his doctorate in law 5 years later. He began his ecclesiastical
career in journalism, specializing in education and family
upbringing. In the 1930s he was a professor of sociology and social
economy, with a particular interest in labor and rural problems,
and he founded the Catholic Workers' University in Wloclawek.
During World War II, he served as a chaplain to the underground
Home Army. In May 1946 he was invested as Residential Bishop
of Lublin and, a little more than two years later, was chosen to
succeed August Cardinal Hlond as Archbishop of Gniezno and Cracow
and, in January 1949, as Primate of Poland.

He took over these functions at the height of Polish Stalinism,
when the Bierut regime was trying to wipe out the Church and destroy
its influence among the people. In December 1950 Wyszynski signed
 a controversial "Understanding Between the Government and the
Episcopate" that enabled the Church to continue its mission, albeit
with restrictions. Church-state relations continued to deteriorate,
however, and on 25 September 1953 the cardinal was arrested by the
secret police and' held in total seclusion under house arrest until
28 October 1956 when a new regime, headed by Wladyslaw Gomulka, came
to power. Relations between Church and state soon became strained
again, with the low point coming in Poland's millennial year, 1966,
after the Polish bishops' courageous "Letter of Reconciliation" to
the West German bishops. The rule of Edward Gierek in the 1970s
seemed to augur better prospects, but the conflict came to a head
again in 1975 when the Polish bishops condemned proposed constitutional
changes, and in 1976 when they spoke up in defense of repressed
workers.

After August 1980, the Church, under the leadership of Cardinal
Wyszynksi, played an important role as mediator between the independent
labor and social movement Solidarity and the state authorities. His
death in May 1981 was mourned by the entire nation; and his memory
is kept alive to this day by the faithful of his Warsaw diocese with
a giant cross of fresh flowers, originally laid out in Victory Square
where John Paul II celebrated his first pontifical Mass on Polish
soil in June 1979, until the authorities closed off the square to
the public for political reasons. The cross was, however, simply
moved elsewhere.

The sanctuary of the Mother of God the Benevolent, to which
the Pope will walk from the cathedral, was built in the 17th century
by the Jesuits and enjoyed the special protection of King Sigismund III.
In the mid-17th century there started to develop in that church the
cult of the Mother of God the Benevolent, who became the patron saint
of the capital and gave her name to the church itself. After the
liquidation of the Jesuit order, the church passed in 1775 to the
Commission of National Education, then changed hands several times,
and only in 1919 was given back to the Jesuits. In the autumn of 1944
it shared the fate of other Warsaw churches bombed by the Germans.
It was reconstructed in the early 1950s. From the sanctuary, the Pope
will make his way to the primate's residence in Miodowa Street.

[page 11]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-611

The schedule of the Pope's second day appears particularly
tight. Leaving his residence in the morning via Krakowskie
Przedmiescie, Nowy Swiat, Three Crosses Square, the pontiff will
reach the Belvedere Palace, where he is to meet with the "highest
representatives of the Polish People's Republic," including Jablonski
and Jaruzelski.

The Belweder (Belvedere), actually a petit palais rather than
a castle, is situated on Ujazdowskie Avenue virtually in Lazienki
Park. It was built in 1820 on the site of a former porcelain factory.
It was used as a residence by the czar's brother Grand Duke Constantine.
 During the uprising of 1831, it was stormed; and Constantine had to
flee. This event made the Belvedere a symbol of Polish resistance
against Russian domination. After World War I, it was used as a
residence by Marshal Jozef Pilsudski; and when he died in 1935, part
 of it was converted into a museum in his memory. Today, it serves
as a residence for the formal head of state, at present Jablonski.

Shortly after noon, the pontiff will visit the Capuchin church
on Miodowa Street to pray before the urn containing the heart of
the great Polish King and savior of Vienna from the Turks, John III
Sobieski. This visit is obviously meant as a prelude to the next
papal trip, which John Paul II will make to the Austrian capital in
September. Sobieski founded the Capuchin church in 1683 to celebrate
his victory over the infidel. It is a baroque edifice with a number
of chapels added in the 18th century. One of them, called the Royal
Chapel, contains the heart of Sobieski and the reliquary of another
Polish King, August II.

After returning to his Warsaw residence, the Pope will meet at 1300
with a number of representatives of non-Catholic Churches. At 1600
another meeting is scheduled -- this time with old-time friends from
Lublin: the Senate members of the Catholic University, led by their
head, Father Mieczyslaw Krapiec, will meet with their former colleague.
It should be noted that the Pope reportedly planned to include Lublin
in his itinerary, but for some reason a compromise solution had to
be reached. The only independent Catholic university in the Communist
bloc, known by its Polish acronym KUL, was founded in Lublin in 1918,
though its antecedents can be traced back to the Catholic Theological
Seminary in St. Petersburg. It grew slowly but steadily until World
War II, when it was closed down by the Nazis. The first institute of
higher education to reopen after the war, it succeeded in maintaining
its identity in communist-run Poland. The authorities have always
displayed an ambiguous attitude to it. Although officially acknowledged
by the state and accorded full academic rights, it remains a private
institution, the bulk of whose support comes from Church funds and,
individual donations! and its students and graduates face more than
the usual hardships. The respected Lublin school of philosophy, a
Polish version of Catholic existentialism, developed at the KUL after
the war. Among its chief proponents was Professor Karol Wojtyla.

The main event during the Pope's sojourn in Warsaw will be a
pontifical Mass celebrated on the meadows near the Sports Stadium
in the city's eastern outskirts at 1730 hours. The stadium was built
in 1955 to serve as a meeting place for the communist-sponsored World

[page 12]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-612

Youth Festival and is seldom used for sports events proper. The
pontifical Mass will, however, not take place in the stadium but
on the nearby meadows known to Varsovians as Blonia. The Pope will
address the pilgrims descending on Warsaw from the eastern dioceses
of Lomza and Drohiczyn, in addition to the Warsaw residents. The
route will lead through Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Nowy Swiat,
Jerozolimskie Avenue, and May 3 Street (Poniatowski Bridge; see the
attached sketch).

Pope John Paul II in Warsaw
June 16-18

(map)

[page 13]

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-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-613

Niepokalanow. The Pope will leave Warsaw on Saturday morning
by helicopter for Niepokalanow, where he is scheduled to arrive at
0930 to pay tribute to the founder of that "City of the Immaculate"
Saint Maksymilian Maria Kolbe. At 1030 he will celebrate a Mass
in the saint's honor and will address the faithful. He will leave
at 1530 in the afternoon for Czestochowa.

Niepokalanow's founder was born on 8 January 1894 in Zdunska
Wola as Rajmund Kolbe (he assumed the names Maksymilian Maria only
in 1907 when he joined the Franciscan Conventuals). In 1912 he went
to Rome, where he studied theology and philosophy at the Pontifical
Gregorian University. Contributing significantly to the international
Marian movement, he founded the sodality (i.e., devotional association)
of the Militia of Mary the Immaculate shortly before being ordained a
priest in 1918. Back in Poland, he started the popular Catholic
monthly Rycerz Niepokalanej ("The Knight of Mary the Immaculate")
and founded (1927) the Niepokalanow monastery and religious center.
A fervent advocate of devotion to the Virgin, he later founded
sister institutions in Japan (1930) and India.

Upon returning to Poland, Kolbe became the superior of the
Niepokalanow monastery and director of Poland's largest Catholic
publishing complex. For his anti-Nazism, he was arrested by the
Gestapo in 1939. Released, he was again arrested in 1941 on charges
of aiding Jews and the Polish underground. He was held in Warsaw's
Pawiak Prison and then shipped to Oswiecim (Auschwitz) where he
volunteered his life in place of a condemned inmate, Franciszek
Gajowniczek, applying devoutly and ultimately Christ's declaration:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends" (John 15:13). First starved, he was finally injected
with phenol and cremated on 14 August 1941.

On 17 October 1971 Kolbe was beatified by Pope Paul VI, the
first Nazi victim to be proclaimed blessed by the Roman Catholic
Church. Pope John Paul II elevated him to sainthood on 10 October
1982.

Niepokalanow is situated near the small town of Teresin,
Skierniewice Voivodship, about 40 kilometers southwest of Warsaw.
Founded in 1927, the monastery grew rapidly in the next decade to
become one of the world's largest Catholic monasteries in the late 1930s.
Its inhabitants then numbered as many as 800, including 650 Franciscan
monks and some 120 seminarians. Its remarkable publishing output was
not restricted to religious publications (Rycerz Niepokalanej, started
in 1922, had a circulation of nearly 1,000,000 by 1939, and its
sister edition for children, Rycerzyk Niepokalanej, more than 100,000)
but also included a popular daily, Maly Dziennik. Founded in 19 35, the
latter, extremely low priced publication soon attained a circulation of
200,000 and was very influential in molding the ethical and social
views of the lower strata of the population. During World War II, all
publication was stopped and the monastery became a shelter for thousands
of refugees, many of them Jews. In the early postwar years,
Niepokalanow returned to life again and took up its publishing. Revived
in mid-1945, Rycerz Niepokalanej nearly regained its prewar scope,

[page 14]

X/9 P (13) -- POLAND ON THE EVE OF PAPAL VISIT: ITINERARY
-- PREPARATIONS -- THE FIRST LEG F-614

with 750,000 copies a month. However, the onset of the Stalinist
era marked a dramatic decrease in circulation that plummeted to a
mere 80,000 in 1948. Four-years later, the publication was banned
altogether and the monks deprived of all contact with the population
for more than a decade. Only during the Solidarity-led revival could
permission be obtained to revive the publication (present circulation:
50,000). Currently, the monastery has 12 priests and 190 friars.
The monks cultivate the saint's memory, collecting various memorabilia,
publishing books and pictures, and manufacturing various devotional
articles. Among other work, they run a small hospital, a volunteer
fire brigade, and a seminary for priests. Despite the ever growing
number of pilgrims visiting the monastery, it still lacks such basic
facilities as a hotel, a restaurant, or a gas station.

Originally, the Pope's meeting with the faithful was scheduled
to take place on the large square in front of the basilica, where a
large altar was built in 1977 to mark the 50th anniversary of
Niepokalanow. Since, however, the square could not accommodate more
than 70,000 pilgrims, it was decided (reportedly by the Pope himself)
that the open-air Mass and the ensuing rally should take place
on a 5-hectare meadow belonging to the monastery. The asphalt road
in the middle of the meadow was built recently for that purpose at
the expense of the voivodship administration.

Note: Similar background information reports will appear
periodically as the papal visit progresses.

- end -

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