KRAKOW, Poland: Pope John Paul II, on an emotional trip to his Polish homeland, warned millions of Catholic faithful Sunday of unknown dangers in the third millennium that have opened up alongside rapid modernization and development. The pope told 2.2 million faithful gathered for an open-air mass on Krakow’s commons that “despite indisputable achievements in many areas” the 20th century “was marked in a particular way by the ‘mystery of iniquity.’”
“With this heritage of both of good and evil, we have entered the new millennium. New prospects of development are opening up before mankind, together with hitherto unheard-of dangers,” he said on the third of his four-day visit to Poland. The 82-year old pontiff appeared to take strength from returning to Krakow, the city where he spent most of his adult life and served as archbishop before becoming pope in 1978, forcefully delivering one of his longest homilies in some time.
He criticized genetic engineering and euthanasia as an attempt by man to stand in God’s place and “interfere in the mystery of human life.” He also warned against the undermining of morals and the family in modern culture, and against a “false ideology of freedom,” this “noisy propaganda of liberalism, of freedom without truth or responsibilty.”
The pope called upon people to show mercy to all and “creativity in charity” to those who modern development has left behind. “This ‘creativity in charity’ is needed to provide material and spiritual assistance to neglected children; to refrain from turning one’s back on the boy or girl who have gotten lost in the world of addiction or crime; to give advice, consolation, spriritual support to those engaged in an eternal struggle with evil,” he urged.
The pope, on his eighth official trip to Poland, was greeted by a sea of pilgrims waving yellow and white Vatican and red and white Polish flags chanting “We love you!” as he approached the podium decorated in fresh flowers. Nevertheless the effects of Parkinson’s disease and arthritis, which have made it difficult for the pope to move, were visible as he sat delivering his homily, his hands shaking as he read from his text.
Pilgrims began converging on Krakow’s commons on Saturday evening in order to pray in person with the pontiff, who was forced to cancel his large public mass during his previous trip in 1999 due to health reasons. “I want this visit to bring us peace, because everybody is so nervous today,” said Alexandra, a 77-year old Krakow resident.
“They didn’t want to let me in, but I wouldn’t give in,” she said, leaning heavily on her cane and shaking. The mass was attended by several dignitaries, including Polish President Aleksander Kwaskiewski and his counterparts Rudolf Schuster of Slovakia and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania.
The pope beatified four Poles during the mass: former Warsaw Archbishop Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski who died in 1863 at the age of 73, Jan Beyzym who dedicated his life to helping victims of Hansen’s disease in Madagascar before dying in 1912 at age 62; Jan Balicki, a former theology professor and seminary rector in Rzeszow who died in 1948 at age 79, and Sister Sancja Szymkowiak, who was nicknamed “Saint Santia” by the French and English prisoners of war she helped during World War II before dying at the age of 32 in 1942.
The beatification of Felinski, who pioneered Catholicism in Russia after being exiled there after the 1863 Polish uprising against the Tsar, may provoke further tension with the Russian Orthodox Church which has long accused the Vatican of proselytism in traditionally Orthodox areas of Russia and Ukraine.