To the Bishops of Poland (19 June 1983)

On Sunday, 19 June 1983, in the Jasna Góra Monastery Library, the Holy Father addressed the Bishops of Poland, speaking of the evangelical mission of the Church, “before the whole of Polish society, and at the same time before the whole world.” 

1. My dear Brothers in the Episcopate:

Cardinal Primate, Cardinal Metropolitan of Krakow, Metropolitans,
Archbishops and Bishops, Members of the Polish Episcopal Conference!

I took my first steps, during this year's pilgrimage in the Fatherland, to the Warsaw cathedral, to the tomb of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of holy memory , the Primate of the Millennium. I celebrated the first Holy Mass for him, commending his immortal soul to God, and at the same time thanking him for the service he provided to the Church in Poland for more than thirty years, as Bishop and as Primate.

It is undoubtedly difficult to express the importance of this service, not only in relation to the Church in Poland, but also in relation to the universal Church. After the death of the Primate, I wrote a letter from the "Gemelli" Polyclinic in Rome, in which I stated, among other things, the following:

"... We return to God the one who belonged above all to God - and who was given to us as pastor and First Bishop in Poland for its profound edification. He has become, in our times, over the thirty years of his pastoral service , an authentic witness of Christ among men, became a teacher and educator in the spirit of all truth about man — and, teaching and carrying out the pastoral ministry, he sought, like Christ and his Mother, to serve men and the Nation, which the good God placed on the path of his mission. As an intrepid spokesman for the dignity of man and his inviolable rights in personal, family, social and national life, the venerable Primate became a singular example of love for Homeland, and must be considered one of the greatest characters in its history" ( Letter of May 28, 1981 ).

2. When I was in Poland for the first time as Pope, in June 1979, Cardinal Wyszynski invited me to the jubilee of Jasna Góra. I now think that he — watching near the throne of the Queen of Poland — contributed with his prayer so that this second pilgrimage, despite great difficulties, could be carried out.

Within the framework of the Polish Episcopal Conference, I wish to once again pay homage, after his death, to the memory of the great Primate, to whom the Church, Poland and all of us — me in particular — owe so much.

Recalling the late Primate, I wish to recall at the same time all the Members of the Polish Episcopal Conference, whom the Eternal Father deigned to call to Himself after my last presence in our Homeland:

the residential Bishops :
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Gniezno and Warsaw, Primate of Poland; Bernard Czaplinski, Bishop of Chelmno; Piotr Golebiowski, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Sandomierz; Jan Jaroszewicz, Bishop of Kielce; Mikolaj Sasinowski, Bishop of Loaiza;

and the Auxiliary Bishops :
Edmund Ilcewicz, in Lublim; Aleksander Mosicki, in Lomza; Józef Kazimierz Kluz, in Gdansk; Waclaw Majewski, in Warsaw; Stanislaw Jakiel, in Przemysl.

We commend to Divine Mercy the soul of the late Primate and all the deceased Brothers in the Episcopate.

3. Allow me now, venerable and dear Brothers, to address all those whom the Eternal Shepherd called to take the place of those who left us.

I address myself first of all to Cardinal Józef Glemp , Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw, successor in the Primal See. We all realize that, along with great dignity, an enormous weight has been placed on your shoulders, dear Primate. We all feel this weight anyway, especially given the evolution of events in our homeland. In this situation, the Collegial unity of the Episcopal Conference takes on particular significance, which, while being a support for each Bishop, is particularly so for the Primate.

Over the last four years, since my last stay in my homeland, the Episcopate has been enriched with new names. And so, following the order of appointment, I wish to welcome all new Bishops . I wish to do so while saluting the "old companions" with whom, just a few years ago, I participated in the Episcopal Conference.

4. And so, alongside the new Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw, I greet the new Bishop of Chelmno, D. Marian Przykucki; the Bishop of Sandomierz-Radom, D. Edward Materski; the Bishop of Kielce, D. Stanislaw Szymecki; the Bishop of Warmia, D. Jan Oblak; the Bishop of Lomza, D. Juliusz Paetz.

I also greet the new Auxiliary Bishops of Lodz, Szczecim-Kamien, Poznan, Katowice, Opole, Wloclawek, Gniezno, Warsaw, Chelmno, Warmia, Lublim, Kielce, Lomza, Gdansk.

The Polish Episcopate now has 85 bishops. I would like to add that, in the same period, the Secretary of the Episcopal Conference, D. Bronislaw Dabrowski, was elevated to the dignity of Titular Archbishop, and in Rome D. André Deskur, President of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, was appointed Archbishop. Finally, D. Zenon Grocholeski, Secretary of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, was also consecrated Bishop.

5. I cordially thank the Polish Episcopate for the invitation to the jubilee of Jasna Góra.

I am happy that my Roman collaborators can also participate with me in this meeting today : Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, Secretary of State; Archbishop Eduardo Martinez Somalo, Substitute; Bishop Jacques Martin, Prefect of the Pontifical Household; Archbishop Luigi Poggi, Apostolic Nuncio with special responsibilities; and others present here, who participate in my pilgrimage.

Preparing for the pontifical visit required a lot of work on the part of several bodies. (I have already expressed my gratitude to the government institutions). Here I would like to give special thanks to the Episcopate and ecclesiastical bodies.

I would like to thank, first of all, the Central Ecclesiastical Organizational Commission, the Commission of Priests of Jasna Góra, the Diocesan Commissions and their respective sections: pastoral, liturgical, technical-organizational, assistance to pilgrims, coordination, security and order, services health, supply and communication. I would also like to say a word of thanks to the Episcopate's Press Department and the entire information and documentation service. I apologize if I forgot anyone. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I am grateful for the organizational work carried out in preparing the pilgrimage. But above all I am grateful for the pastoral preparation .

This preparation is expressed in the words: "The gift of life: the gift of a dignified life, the gift of supernatural life".

— "the gift of life" includes the defense of unborn children and the religious atmosphere of the family;

— "the gift of a dignified life" refers to sobriety, chastity, opposing growing pornography, raising awareness about the threat of drugs, culture and truth in everyday life;

— "the gift of Christian life" includes prayer, particularly in the family, participation in Sunday Mass, the sacraments, with particular attention to the sacrament of Penance, works of mercy (cf. Pastoral Instruction of the Polish Episcopate , 5.2.1983) .

In no other way does God make himself so radically present through his action in human life, and in no other way does he manifest himself so calmly to man, as in his creative action, that is, as the One who offers the gift of human life!

Therefore, respect for the gift of life is a manifestation and fundamental proof of authentic religiosity and morality.

My brothers! My heart's most ardent desire is that my visit to our homeland contributes to the achievement of all these objectives that you yourselves formulated in its preparation. Such objectives refer to fundamental problems in the life of the Nation, regarding its morality and its future. For all of this I pray very fervently in union with you!

6. I constantly follow the efforts made by the Polish Episcopate to carry out the evangelical mission of the Church . You carry out this mission before the whole of Polish society, and at the same time before the whole world. In fact, the events of recent years have focused the attention of a large part of world public opinion on the Church in Poland.

The long experience of history, especially the experience of recent centuries, and perhaps even more so that of recent decades, confirm that the Church in Poland lives in a deep bond with the Nation . It is an evangelical and pastoral bond, and it remains in the same line in which the entire Church of today, faithful to the spirit of the Gospel and Vatican II, wishes to be the "Church of the poor" without closing itself off to anyone, neither to any man nor to any social group. In fact, man is "the first and fundamental way of the Church", as I stated in the Encyclical Redemptor Hominis (n. 14).

"Church of the poor" means that it assumes diverse responsibilities throughout the world in favor of man, his spiritual and material needs, his fundamental and inalienable rights. These responsibilities correspond to different situations, in which the different needs and human rights must first be considered. In our specific case, the responsibility of the Church must correspond to our Polish situation.

This commitment is part of the evangelization program, as stated by Paul VI at the conclusion of the 1974 Synod of Bishops, through the exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi . Here are his words:

"... Evangelization would not be complete if it did not take into account the reciprocal appeal that the Gospel and the concrete, personal and social life of man continually make. Therefore, evangelization includes an explicit message, adapted to different situations, constantly updated, about the rights and duties of each human person, about family life, without which moral maturity is hardly possible, about common social life, about international life, about peace, justice, development... Between evangelization and human promotion — development, liberation — there is in fact a profound connection. It is an anthropological relationship, because the man to be evangelized is not an abstract being, but is conditioned by social and economic situations. It is also a theological relationship, because one cannot separate the plan of creation from the plan of Redemption, which has repercussions in very concrete situations of injustice, which must be combated, and justice that must be restored. It is, finally, a relationship of an eminently evangelical nature, as is that of charity: how can we actually proclaim the new commandment without promoting the true growth of man in justice and peace?" (nos. 29-31).

7. I have assiduously followed over the last few years, and in particular in the last few months, the interventions of the Episcopal Conference, in particular the communiqués from the plenary sessions . I referred to some passages from these documents in my speeches to the Poles during the Wednesday General Audiences , and on several other occasions. It seems to me that the Episcopal Conference's communiqués satisfy the desire to hear the truth , which is so great in society. Truth is the first and fundamental condition of social renewal. Without it we cannot speak of social dialogue, which is so rightly requested by the Episcopate and certainly expected by society. Polish society in fact has a fair right to everything that ensures its own way of being , that is, the set of rights that come from the very nature of the human person and the national community.

Service in favor of truth, in the mission of the Church, accompanies the service of charity . Recent times have placed before you, dear Brothers, before all Pastors, and before the entire Polish ecclesial community, enormous responsibilities.

"It was therefore the Church's responsibility to visit those imprisoned and interned, organize help for their families, distribute food and clothing to those in need, with particular attention to children, the elderly, the sick, families The dimensions of this aid can be illustrated, for example, with the most numerous. fact that from January 1981 to April 1982, one hundred and twenty tons of medicines passed through the medicine distribution center in Warsaw and were supplied to clinics and hospitals.

Thanks to efficient organization, this aid reached parishes and the most remote places in the country through the diocesan commissions." These are the words of Bishop Czeslaw Domin, President of the Episcopate's Charitable Commission (cf. Tygodnik Powszechny , 20.6.1982, n. 25, p. 5).

There is a need to care for each man , to defend each compatriot, to protect each life, to prevent mutilations, which are so easy in cases of aggression, especially when dealing with young and weak organisms.

A similar concern is needed for the elderly, those who live alone, the abandoned, the sick... The Church in Poland has carried out a lot of assistance work. This active love for others transforms the negative , and in many ways painful , image of social life that has been created over the past year. In this painful situation, some ray of light shines as a result of love for others.

8. The jubilee of Jasna Góra takes us, dear Brothers, to those themes that constituted pastoral care in Poland, during the period of the Great Novena and the Millennium of Baptism in our country.

These are Marian (and Mariological) themes of particular depth and intensity. I referred to them during my previous pilgrimage in our homeland, especially in Jasna Góra. A particular legacy of the Millennium year continues to be that Act of giving oneself "in the maternal slavery of love for the freedom of the Church in the world and in Poland ". This Act remains in ideal union with the heritage of the Council, with the program of Evangelii nuntiandi and with the commitment of the "Church of the poor".

From the Marian inspiration of our Millennium, supported by the figure of Saint Maximilian, everything that contributes to the freedom of the Church must arise — and through this the Church must serve the true freedom of man and the nation .

All this became particularly relevant in the context of the events of the eighties.

I read with deep emotion the postulates that the Plenary Conference of the Polish Episcopate formulated at the beginning of last May, certainly not for the first time, since such postulates were formulated several times after December 13, 1981. I express my deep conviction that these postulates correspond to the deepest assumptions of Christian ethics and also patriotic ethics . They serve the cause of man, and equally the good name of the Fatherland in the opinion of the world and history.

9. The events of the eighties highlight in a particular way the importance of the Church's social doctrine, and especially the importance of the "Gospel of work", which is at the heart of this doctrine, and which I tried to express in the Encyclical Laborem exercens .

I have always (since the time when Divine Providence allowed me to have a personal experience of physical work) nurtured the conviction that the social doctrine of the Church does not go by the wayside but, on the contrary, meets exactly the true aspirations of men at work. . The Christian doctrine on work postulates, on the one hand, the solidarity of workers and, on the other, the need for honest solidarity with men at work.

I referred to this topic in June 1982, in Geneva, invited by the International Labor Organization : "To create a world of justice and peace, solidarity must destroy the foundations of Hatred, selfishness, injustice, which are often expressed in ideological principles or essential laws of social life. Within the same work community, solidarity encourages the discovery of the demands for unity inherent in the nature of work, rather than the tendencies towards distinction and opposition. Such solidarity cannot conceive society in terms of a struggle 'against', nor social relations in terms of an irreducible opposition between classes. A solidarity that finds its origin and its strength in the very nature of human work, and therefore. in the primacy of the human person over things, it will know how to create instruments of dialogue and mutual support that will allow opposition to be resolved without seeking the destruction of those who oppose it.

No, it is not a utopia to say that the world of work can be made a world of justice" (n. 9).

Allow me in this context to also mention "The Spirit of Human Work" — the book that in a way constituted the identity card of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, when he entered the Polish Episcopate in 1946, and later occupied the Primatial See.

Here, almost in a new dimension and with a new intensity, the ancient, not to say eternal, function of the Church opens up: the function of pastoral work and apostolate in Poland . The meaning of this apostolate and pastoral work is twofold: it concerns the spirit of human work, and it also concerns its social form. The problem of trade unions in their authentic form is rooted in both dimensions.

10. In Poland, we have become accustomed to a programmed and global pastoral care. A global plan was for example the Great Novena. So was, to a certain extent, the period of six years before the jubilee of Jasna Góra.

I would also like to add in conclusion, that precisely in this year of 1983 the Polish Marian inspiration meets the Christological perspective : the Polish Jubilee of Jasna Góra in our Homeland merges in a certain way with the Year of Redemption, the extraordinary Jubilee of the universal Church . This Jubilee represents almost a stop for the Church on its path towards the second Millennium of the birth of the Redeemer. It therefore has, in a certain sense, the character of advent.

We thus return again to Marian inspiration: Mary is present at the advent of the Church and humanity. She comes into the world before the birth of Christ and, from the moment of her Immaculate Conception, she becomes the definitive way for Christ to enter the great human family.

Recalling this at the end of my speech, I wish to clarify in this way another reason for my pilgrimage to Poland this year.

At the same time, I wish with all my heart, dear Brothers, that you continue to find in the theme of the Holy Year of Redemption and in Marian inspiration, support for pastoral plans , so that they serve to increasingly unite the People of God in the Polish land, and to lift human hearts to that dignity which they find in Christ, the Redeemer of the world.

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