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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 27, 1983
PAGE 7
called "the right to freedom, to be sovereign" one of the "fundamental
rights of man and of the nation."
Polish society, declared the pope, "has a "strict right to whatever ensures
its own unique identity." What comprises Poland's "unique identity"? He
continued: "After 1,000 years of historic experience, this nation has its
own life, its culture, social traditions and spiritual identity."
In other words, Catholicism is completely bound up with the culture of
Poland, and in fact gives the nation its "spiritual iderrtity." To be a Pole
is to be a Roman Catholic. Poland has been Catholic for a millennium, Com
munist-( in veneer form only) for but 38 years. So, while the Communist
authorities complained that the pope was engaging in politics, the pope
could rightly claim his words were religious and pastoral since Poland's
Catholic religion and cultural heritage are really one and the same. He
shrewdly defended his open support for the outlawed Solidarity unions in
religious terms. He said that the people's right to free association in
trade unions was "a properly innate right...not given to us by the state.
The state has the obligation only to protect and guard it so that it is not
violated.
This right is given .QY the Creator who made man as a social
being.".
In Czestochowa, the pope also quoted the last line of Poland's hymn of re
demption, "Boze cos Polske": "Before your altars we lift our plea, give us
back our fatherland, proud and free."
The pontiff also reserved some very important observations for his last
stop in Krakow. His comments there once again showed that his vision for
the future is not limited to his beloved Poland, but applies to Europe as a
whole. Here is a report received over our UPI wire on June 22:
The pope is not arguing for a re-alignment for Poland's
frontiers. In any case, the Vatican was a party to the 1975
Helsinki Final Act in which 34 nations agreed on the immutability
of Europe's frontiers. But the thrust of his arguments still
strike at the division of Europe associated with the February
1945 conference at Yalta that brought together President Franklin
Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet
leader Josef Stalin.
For what the pope is preaching is the spiritual unity of Europe,
irrespective of frontiers. One of the prayers during his final
Krakow mass was for "all the Christians of East and West, that
they become united in Christ and expand the Kingdom'"'orChrist
throughout the world."
In Spain last year, the pope appealed to Europeans to rediscover their
roots. It might be good to recall just what John Paul II said in his
"Declaration to Europe," given at Santiago de Compostela on November 9,
1982:
I, John Paul, son of the Polish nation which has always
considered itself European .QY its origins, traditio� culture
and vital relationships, Slavic among the Latins and Latin among
the Slavs;... I, Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Universal
Church, from Santiago, utter to you, Europe of the ages, � £!:..Y