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| Professor Marek Belka - President of the National Bank of Poland - recalls Blessed John Paul II |
My last meeting with John Paul II took place in October 2004 in the form of a private audience. The Pope was already very ill at that time. He struggled to speak. He asked short questions. We met one day after I had signed the Treaty establishing a the Constitution for Europe. Not many people know about it but the Pope was the only person who publicly thanked me for signing this document. He was extremely interested in events in Poland. I don't want to sound cheap but, after the meeting, I had a feeling that I had spoken to an extraordinary man, a deeply intellectual patriot. Despite his conservative beliefs, he was open to other cultures, including Jewish and Islamic.
I don't think we are aware of what brand for Poland the Pope was. Thanks to him we made up for the previous 200 years in terms of world reputation; millions of people became aware of the Polish nation. Once, I asked Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schroeder about his meeting with the Holy Father. He is a Lutheran and I think not a very religious one. He told me that he had met the Pope on several occasions and always had the feeling to be in the presence of holiness and that it was out of the ordinary. I can't say I had this same kind of feeling as Schroeder but I could not help but comparing them. It is obvious that the Pope was able to attract many people. Warmth was coming out of him. What I remember most from of John Paul II's pontificate is his first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979. I was abroad at that time. Undoubtedly, this visit has had an impact on the future of Poland. He arrived and told us the simplest thing: 'You are strong and you have nothing to be afraid of.' And we felt that. I also took part of in the organization of Polish diplomats' journey to the Pope's funeral. It was not an easy undertaking due to Lech Wałęsa's hesitation about his participation. The funeral really moved me, like every Pole, I assume. There were a several symbolic moments, like the opening and closing of the book placed on John Paul II's coffin. St. Peter's Square became a Polish one - everyone could see it was a great time for the Polish people. Something ended back then. |
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Professor Marek Belka
 Biography |
| Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski - former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter |
Dear Ms,
I am writing very impressed by your work about John Paul II... its form and content are incredibly creative - at the same time they are a sign of faithful love and a grasp of these traits of His personality which remain a signpost to eternity for everyone who had the chance to meet Him.
Zbigniew Brzezinski |
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Zbigniew Brzeziński, Foto: R.Pasterski/Fotorzepa ©
Biography |
| Prof. dr. hab Andrzej Zoll - judge and the President of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Ombudsman |
| We can meet a lot of terms relating to the person of John Paul II, aimed to emphasize the importance of works of his various activities. I would like to add one more thing to these terms - Ombudsman of the World. There is no other man who has done so much for the protection of human rights during the last decades of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first century as Pope John Paul II. We can say then, that he has built the doctrine of human rights founded on an inherent and inalienable dignity of every human being. According to this doctrine, the human rights are not obtainable, especially of the will of the government. Human rights are related to the human nature and the public authority should be obliged to respect and protect it. These rights can not depend on a personal status of a given society, as being related to this society. For me, as a person engaged in criminal law, the statements of John Paul II addressed to prisoners and the authority responsible for the prison system, enclosed in the Message for the Jubilee in the prisons, dated 09-07-2000, have a strong importance. The Pope recalled that 'the public authorities, which deprive a human being of its personal freedom within the law and bracket its both longer or shorted period of life, should know that they have no power over time of an imprisoned man'. This time remains available to the prisoner and may be used in a different ways. Appealing to the authorities, Pope John Paul II wrote: 'The failure of actions to improve the situation of the prisoners would be equivalent to bringing a prison sentence to a simple form of social retaliation, which can arouse theirs hatred'. In this Message and many other statements of John Paul II is contained the prison program, as yet hardly ever noticed by politicians. |
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Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Zoll, Foto: Fotorzepa ©
Biography |
| Janusz Głowacki - Polish-American author and screenwriter |
| Lech Wałesa is one of the most famous Poles in the world next to John Paul II but if the Poles chose the Pope, then probably would have chosen someone else, because it is such a country. |
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Janusz Głowacki, photo: Judyta Papp ©
Biography |
| The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis - Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East |
| Pope John Paul II held all people close to his heart. That is why he lived in people's hearts. I will never forget his visit to Egypt in 2000, when the Egyptians welcomed him chanting: 'John Paul II - we love you', and he responded saying: 'John Paul II loves you too'. |
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The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis
Biography |
| Rev. Adam Boniecki - Editor in Chief of Tygodnik Powszechny |
| There will always be sycophants, onlookers, skeptics and critics not approving the beatification of John Paul II. They will say, 'He should be judged by history, and not be beatified right away'. However, there will always be those who arrived to watch the beatification, those who constituted the crowd of one and a half million devoted. By no means ignorant simpletons, nor church bigots, but youngsters, adults and the elderly, both educated and ordinary ones. They have no need for miracles, nor for explanations of this beatification. They simply know. That is why they made this seemingly absurd effort of a journey, of badly-slept nights and standing for hours during the Holy Mass. Millions of people around the world read the sign John Paul II was himself - the witness to faith. Not only his words, but mostly the person that he was, gave an answer to human hearts', yearning for love, goodness, beauty... God. This beatification will be remembered by history as a great sign of faith, because everything that happened does not apply to any other category. Dear sycophants, critics and onlookers, you are wrong. John Paul II has not been forgotten. He still touches people's hearts. His mission still bears fruit. Is there any other way to explain what happened in Rome on that day? |
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Rev. Adam Boniecki, photo: Judyta Papp ©
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| | This really was a beautiful ceremony! The crowds gathered were the best sign of his presence in our hearts and there, on St Peter's Square | |
| | Posted: 2011 06.03 18:18 Ana | |
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