August is the fourth month of the continuing preparations for Pope John Paul II beatification taking place under the motto: “I’m with you – message to the Polish people”

On the second Sunday, August 8^th, the John Paul II teaching from Pope’s fourth pilgrim to homeland was contemplated in churches and by press.

This visit – first in a free Poland – took place from June 1^st through June 9^th 1991 under the motto: “Give thanks to God, do not quench the Holy Spirit” (1 Tes 5, 18-19) and it included 12 Polish cities from Koszalin to Przemysl. John Paul II focused His teaching in the area of the Decalogue. He was warning His compatriots not to make absolute the concept of freedom, which – as He pointed out- may lead to new forms of slavery.

The presence of religion in public life

The Holy Father talked a lot about the presence of religious values in public life. “The postulate of neutral philosophy of life is valid mainly in this respect, that the country should protect freedom of conscience and believes for all its citizens’ regardless of what religion or belief they posses. But the demand that to the social and country life doesn’t allow, in any way, to enter dimensions of holiness is a postulate that spread atheism into country and social life” – explained in Lubaczow.

John Paul II explained that Church cannot refrain from proclaiming the truth of the integral characteristic of basics human values which selective treatment may ruin the fundamentals of social order (Warsaw).

He also alluded to the concept of Ecumenical Council of the Church - conception of a Church presence in modern world, not known to the Polish society due to the 45^-years long communism enslavement. Hence, the Pope said that Church “does not identify itself, by any means, with any political community and does not tie with any political system”. He explained, that “Church wishes to participate in the life of society as a Gospel witness and are foreign, today, any desires to subdue any field of public life that does not belong to the Church”. At the same time, John Paul II warned against treating universal values arising from Christianity as private issues of the believers only that does not have any translations into social categories.

Although, the basic rules that define the mission of the Church in a democratic society found, two years later, reflection in the Concordat signed between the Polish Republic and the Holy See, in 1991 which were contested by some of the new Polish political elites and most of the media. These groups accused Pope for His aspirations to build a “religious country”, praising – as the only feasible for realization in a “modern world” – the model of laic separation in a French type. Such polarization of attitudes led into strong tensions that existed throughout His pilgrim. It was a painful experience for the Pope.

Four years later, Pope wrote in a letter to Jerzy Turowicz, that in 1991 “In Poland we had to deal with intensive attacks from the laic Left Wing and liberal groups on the Church, the Episcopate, as well as on the Pope. They wanted to erase from the social memory Church’s existence in the life of the Polish Nation over the past years. Accusations about clericalism were multiplying as well as accusations about the alleged desire to rule the country by Church or hampering political emancipation of Polish society.”

What freedom?

John Paul II during this memorable pilgrim constantly warned against misuse of freedom. This was its “leitmotiv”. The Pope showed the dilemma that existed in the “old” Europe for a long time and after the liberation existed also in Poland: “Freedom, to which Christ freed us or the freedom from Christ?”

“Yes, you need education for freedom, a mature freedom is needed. Only in such, a society, a nation, all the aspects of its life can rely on, but a fictional freedom cannot be created, freedom that supposedly frees an individual; however, it actually disarms and violates. A good self-examination is needed at the entrance to the third Republic” – He appealed in Kielce.

The Pope reminded that freedom must be based on truth. In Olsztyn, John Paul II talked about truth in human lives, most of all in the public life. “Not too long ago, freedom of press was threatened by a censor; today that freedom is in danger with other threats such as egocentrism, falsehood, ruse, or even hatred. The Media may become a tool of violence if they don’t serve the truth.” – Pope ascertained.

A Family in the center of interest

Pope’s remarkable Mass at the airport in Kielce went into history. Accompanied by the storm and rain, John Paul II relating to the Fourth Commandment, in a dramatic voice warned from “the apparent freedom that enslaves”, and it is as destructive to a human being as to the entire family.

The crisis – said the Pope – unfortunately did not omit a Polish family. Politicians responsible for the life of society were cautioned from reckless approach to the family and marriage matters. “It is so easy to destroy, but more difficult to rebuild. Devastation was going on for too long. An intensive restoration is needed. “Let’s a new human fatherhood and a new human motherhood in God regenerate, let a family to renew, a special place of God’s alliance with human beings. Its name: the Church-Home” – John Paul II appealed.

Imperative to Defending Life

In the same homily, John Paul II said that “the world would evolve into a nightmare if the spouses with financial difficulties would see in their conceived child only a burden and a threat to their stability (…) it will mean that a human dignity, his actual appointment and final fate was totally forgotten.”

Pausing in Radom over the Commandment “You shall not kill” stated that this is “strict and absolute injunction which simultaneously affirms the right of each human being to live: from the moment of conception until the natural death”.

In this context, John Paul II brought up Jews and Gypsies genocide asking all listeners for the forgiveness (“forgive me, dear Brothers and Sisters that I will go further”) saying about “vast cemeteries of human cruelty in our century, that of the unborn”.

John Paul II stressed that there is no a decision-making body, a parliament, that has a right to legalize the murder of an innocent and defenseless human being. Pope highlighted that beside the negative aspect of the fifth Commandment there is also a positive one that requires common concerns to protect life. Pope called to expand the concerns also in a form of an institutional help given to all parents that are in a difficult financial situation. According to the Pope, convents should actively participate.

In Wloclawek, going beyond the prepared text, Pope angrily warned from the cult of death “yielding to desire, to consumption: this is the Europeanism”

In Warsaw, before the end of His apostolic journey, the Holy Father at the archbishops’ residency met with a group of parliamentarians, the initiators of the legislation project that related to legal protection of unborn children. Parliamentarians presented to the Holy Father, a prepared act related to this issue and presented initiatives with a goal to promote Family Right Chapter. Holy Father expressing his thankfulness stated that “this is not only an issue of free Poland, but it is for sure a main issue”.

The act given by parliamentarians to the Pope become a starting point of a few-years long debate that ended with an acceptation of the act that protects life (except for a few exclusions) which replaced a communistic act that allowed for an abortion “on request”, as a consequence of which millions of unborn Poles were killed.

KAI