Tomorrow, the Pope begins his trip to Poland. The first day:
Tomorrow, Thursday, Benedict XVI will leave the Vatican on an apostolic trip to Poland, the second of his pontificate following last August’s visit to Germany. In Poland, from May 25 to 28, he will visit Warsaw, Czestochowa, Krakow, Wadowice, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, and Auschwitz.
The Holy Father will depart from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 8.40 a.m., arriving in Warsaw at 11 a.m. Following the welcome ceremony at Warsaw’s Okecie airport, he will travel by popemobile to the city’s cathedral of St. John – which John Paul II visited five times – where he will hold a meeting with clergy.
Following lunch at the archbishop’s palace of Miodowa, Benedict XVI will go to the apostolic nunciature. At 5.45 p.m. he is due to pay a courtesy visit to the president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, in the presidential palace.
Leaving the presidential palace at 6.45 p.m., he will travel to the Lutheran church of the Most Holy Trinity where he is due to meet with delegates of the seven Churches form the Polish Ecumenical Council – established in 1946 by the Lutheran pastor, Zygmunt Mitchelis – and with representatives of other religions.
The Lutheran church of the Most Holy Trinity was built in 1781 in a poor area on the outskirts of Warsaw. In 1939, during the Second World War, its wooden dome was destroyed, to be replaced some years later with a steel one. However, the communist authorities prohibited the use of the church as a place of worship and banned the placement of a cross atop the dome. The building was used as a concert hall. At the end on the Stalinist era, in 1956, the evangelical community was able to recoup its church.
Here’s the meticulously detailed timeline of the trip from the Vatican website. Fascinating.
Here’s the page you’ll go to for texts of his homilies and addresses – first priority will be Italian and Polish. Whether or not English ever gets up there – we’ll see!
Headlines and articles from the website for Polish radio:
On the visit to Auschwitz:
The Pope will enter the former camp’s grounds alone, in silence, and some minutes later will be joined by only a handful of people. One of them will be Manfred Deselaers, a German priest who’s been working in the Centre of Meetings and Prayer close to the Auschwitz site for 15 years. He told me that the memory of the past and honouring the victims will surely not be the only aspect of the Pope’s visit.
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