daily666
05-25-2006, 07:01 AM
WARSAW, Poland -
By DAVID McHUGH, Associated Press Writer
Poland gave German-born Pope Benedict XVI an enthusiastic welcome Thursday as he started a four-day visit aimed at honoring predecessor John Paul II and furthering German-Polish reconciliation from the wounds of World War II.
Benedict beamed broadly and waved as he descended from the plane, and managed to keep his skullcap from flying off in a brisk breeze — unlike his arrival on his first foreign trip in Germany last year.
A choir sang "The Barge," John Paul's favorite song — just one sign of how the late pope remains a strong presence in Poland more than a year after his death.
Some of the frenzied anticipation that characterized native son John Paul's visits, when thousands jammed the streets before dawn, was lacking, with fewer people turning out to hold yellow and white
Vatican flags and watch the pope pass by.
Benedict tried some Polish with his formal hello to the honor guard: "Greetings, soldiers," but stumbled a bit over the words.
He drew a roar of applause, however, as he launched into his welcoming speech — in Polish, later switching to Italian.
"I have very much wanted to make this visit to the native land and people of my beloved predecessor, the servant of God John Paul II," Benedict said. "I have come to follow in the footsteps of his life."
Benedict is delivering speeches in Italian — which he speaks well — and Polish, which he doesn't, but not in German, presumably out of regard for the feelings of the wartime generation in Poland, which suffered enormously at the hands of the Nazi invaders.
But Poles like Benedict's emphasis on continuing John Paul's legacy, and don't seem to mind that he is German despite the memory of the war — which left Warsaw in ruins.
High points on Benedict's schedule will include a Mass on Friday in central Warsaw where John Paul inspired the Solidarity movement with a landmark appearance in 1979 during communist rule. Then he heads for the late pope's hometown of Wadowice, and for Krakow, where John Paul served as archbishop.
On Sunday Benedict visits the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where Nazi German occupiers killed some 1.5 million people, most of them Jews. The visit by a German-born pope who was enrolled in the Hitler Youth and later deserted the German army as the war ended in 1945 is fraught with significance for Catholic-Jewish relations, a favorite cause of John Paul, who also visited Auschwitz on his 1979 trip to Poland.
Asked by journalists on the plane how he felt about visiting Auschwitz as a German, Benedict said, "I am above all a Catholic. I must say that this is the most important point."
"It's not the same as with our pope," said 75-year-old Wanda Nowicka, who was waiting on a downtown street to watch Benedict pass by on his way to his first stop at Warsaw's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
"Our pope said this is my country. He knew what our problems were, he understood them, he cared. I was in Warsaw during World War II and the Warsaw Uprising, you can't imagine what we suffered from the Germans. But when I think of Benedict, this does not matter, I don't think of him as German.
Retired teacher Elzbieta Schmidt, 60, said she arrived two hours early to get a good place but had no trouble finding a bench. "I'm shocked and ashamed that so few people are here," she said. "Maybe this is because people are working now, because I'm sure the interest and enthusiasm must be great and I hope the crowd will get bigger later."
The 1944 uprising — by Polish guerrillas against the occupying Germans — was met with terrible retaliation by German dictator Adolf Hitler that left the capital a heap of rubble.
Jadwiga Gasiar, 69, stood holding a papal flag. "I don't have the same feelings as I used to when John Paul was coming," she said. "This is a different feeling now. I came to welcome him warmly but it's not the same. And it does not matter that he is a German."
Shortly after his election last year, Benedict said he saw a "providential design" in the fact that a Polish pope was succeeded by a German one.
"Both popes in their youth — both on different sides and in different situations — were forced to experience the barbarity of the Second World War," Benedict said.
By DAVID McHUGH, Associated Press Writer
Poland gave German-born Pope Benedict XVI an enthusiastic welcome Thursday as he started a four-day visit aimed at honoring predecessor John Paul II and furthering German-Polish reconciliation from the wounds of World War II.
Benedict beamed broadly and waved as he descended from the plane, and managed to keep his skullcap from flying off in a brisk breeze — unlike his arrival on his first foreign trip in Germany last year.
A choir sang "The Barge," John Paul's favorite song — just one sign of how the late pope remains a strong presence in Poland more than a year after his death.
Some of the frenzied anticipation that characterized native son John Paul's visits, when thousands jammed the streets before dawn, was lacking, with fewer people turning out to hold yellow and white
Vatican flags and watch the pope pass by.
Benedict tried some Polish with his formal hello to the honor guard: "Greetings, soldiers," but stumbled a bit over the words.
He drew a roar of applause, however, as he launched into his welcoming speech — in Polish, later switching to Italian.
"I have very much wanted to make this visit to the native land and people of my beloved predecessor, the servant of God John Paul II," Benedict said. "I have come to follow in the footsteps of his life."
Benedict is delivering speeches in Italian — which he speaks well — and Polish, which he doesn't, but not in German, presumably out of regard for the feelings of the wartime generation in Poland, which suffered enormously at the hands of the Nazi invaders.
But Poles like Benedict's emphasis on continuing John Paul's legacy, and don't seem to mind that he is German despite the memory of the war — which left Warsaw in ruins.
High points on Benedict's schedule will include a Mass on Friday in central Warsaw where John Paul inspired the Solidarity movement with a landmark appearance in 1979 during communist rule. Then he heads for the late pope's hometown of Wadowice, and for Krakow, where John Paul served as archbishop.
On Sunday Benedict visits the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where Nazi German occupiers killed some 1.5 million people, most of them Jews. The visit by a German-born pope who was enrolled in the Hitler Youth and later deserted the German army as the war ended in 1945 is fraught with significance for Catholic-Jewish relations, a favorite cause of John Paul, who also visited Auschwitz on his 1979 trip to Poland.
Asked by journalists on the plane how he felt about visiting Auschwitz as a German, Benedict said, "I am above all a Catholic. I must say that this is the most important point."
"It's not the same as with our pope," said 75-year-old Wanda Nowicka, who was waiting on a downtown street to watch Benedict pass by on his way to his first stop at Warsaw's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
"Our pope said this is my country. He knew what our problems were, he understood them, he cared. I was in Warsaw during World War II and the Warsaw Uprising, you can't imagine what we suffered from the Germans. But when I think of Benedict, this does not matter, I don't think of him as German.
Retired teacher Elzbieta Schmidt, 60, said she arrived two hours early to get a good place but had no trouble finding a bench. "I'm shocked and ashamed that so few people are here," she said. "Maybe this is because people are working now, because I'm sure the interest and enthusiasm must be great and I hope the crowd will get bigger later."
The 1944 uprising — by Polish guerrillas against the occupying Germans — was met with terrible retaliation by German dictator Adolf Hitler that left the capital a heap of rubble.
Jadwiga Gasiar, 69, stood holding a papal flag. "I don't have the same feelings as I used to when John Paul was coming," she said. "This is a different feeling now. I came to welcome him warmly but it's not the same. And it does not matter that he is a German."
Shortly after his election last year, Benedict said he saw a "providential design" in the fact that a Polish pope was succeeded by a German one.
"Both popes in their youth — both on different sides and in different situations — were forced to experience the barbarity of the Second World War," Benedict said.