To the Polish Community (16 February 1982)

On Tuesday, 16 February  1982, the Holy Father addressed the Polish community in Lagos, Nigeria, speaking on emigration, the Pope said, “ just as each man lives for others, so too do Nations live in mutual relationship, one for the other, and emigration, if appropriately understood, according to the adequate premises of social, political and international morality, is an expression of these mutual performances of society and Nations.”

I cordially thank the Ambassador who wanted to express the thoughts and feelings of all the participants in our meeting in a concise and cordial way. I thank God that this meeting today was able to take place. It is in a certain sense the final meeting, as it is certainly not the first, on the path of my stay in Nigeria. In fact, already in the early afternoon of my visit, during the first Holy Mass that I celebrated here, in Lagos, at the national stadium, I was able to meet my compatriots, as well as in the subsequent stages in Onitsha, in Enugu and above all in the North, in Kaduna, where, at the stadium, among hundreds of thousands of participants gathered there for the priestly ordinations, a group of Poles was distinguished by the banners, the writings and also by the Polish songs, well performed even by the non-Poles. A Nigerian academic choir sang “Sto lat”. And I thanked her in Polish, because it is not easy to say thank you for “Sto lat” in another language; however, at the same time, I thanked my compatriots. Finally, yesterday, during the visit to Ibadan, I had the opportunity to meet another group of compatriots who work in the country's universities; and I was able to spend quite a long time with some of them, as had also happened in Kaduna.

I am happy about this meeting today, because once again I can meet you in a different country in the world, and above all in another country in Africa. This depends on emigration, which may appear as a certain dispersion of forces, but must also be seen as a mission and in any case as a service. The world is so organized that no nation ever lives in complete isolation and indeed it would be bad if it lived like that. In reality, just as each man lives for others, so too do Nations live in mutual relationship, one for the other, and emigration, if appropriately understood, according to the adequate premises of social, political and international morality, is an expression of these mutual performances of society and Nations.

I believe that Polish emigration here, in Nigeria, has precisely this character; this is indicated by the composition of the compatriots who live there, their social and professional character. And I want to add one more thing: the first reports concerning you, Poles who live here, I received from Nigerian Bishops, when they came "ad limina Apostolorum" to inform the Pope about the problems of their Church. Everyone, one after another, spoke to me about the Poles who live in this country, and spoke of them as a living part of the Church that is in Nigeria. It is a particular testimony also given to our homeland; not only to the Church in Poland, but also simply to Poland. Because - as is known - the history of our homeland over a thousand years is very closely linked to the Church and Christianity. The last difficult centuries are a particular period of testing of this alliance between the Nation and the Church. I would add: especially the last few years.

I want to tell you that being the first in history of the Polish lineage, son of the Polish land, to have become successor of Peter, not only a Polish Pontiff, but a Slav, I feel a particular debt towards my homeland, and therefore towards all my compatriots. I think that the homeland, its history, the history of the Church, the history of the nation have prepared me in an exceptional way to be in solidarity with the different nations of the world. It is not for nothing that the Poles, throughout their history, have sought alliances, united with their closest neighbors; not for nothing, then, did they fight "for our freedom and yours". All this belongs to the spiritual legacy of the Pope who came from Poland. And precisely thanks to this legacy it is easy for me to feel a particular solidarity towards those people, those nations who suffer, who in the great family of peoples are in any way discriminated against, oppressed, deprived of freedom, deprived of national sovereignty, deprived, in the life of every day, or because of an entire system, of sufficient social justice; It is easy for me to be immediately with them because I learned from an early age to be in tune with our nation which had a difficult history and also has a difficult present.

By meeting with you and speaking to you, I take this opportunity to tell you these things. Because you too have a part in all of this; and since you too are outside your homeland, just as the Pope is outside your homeland, you can understand this in a particular way. I add that being outside my homeland, permanently in Rome and sometimes outside of Rome, I am nevertheless very close to my homeland, I experience very deeply all the events that happen there, especially the difficult events, and I express out loud what I feel like Poles have rights from their neighbors and from all nations, especially those nations with which the history of our continent has linked them, since its origins.

I have expressed this during the last months and weeks, regarding the state of emergency, the state of war in Poland; I expressed this by addressing both the state authorities and all the representatives of the States and Nations, especially those on whom it most depends that the rights of men and nations are respected.

Dear fellow countrymen, brothers and sisters, these rights are a centuries-old legacy for us. We did not learn them only with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, after the Second World War. We have learned them over the centuries. With this message Pawel Wlodkowic arrived at the Council of Constance. It is a centuries-old legacy. It is difficult to be Polish without carrying this heritage within you.

Concluding this meditation which, as you can see, is also addressed to our common homeland and its place in the world, I would like to address you who are outside the homeland and who represent Poland and everything that is Polish here, in Nigeria.

My hope is that you can implement this representation in the best way, in the most fruitful way for this developing society, a society that has already achieved great successes, but which is still at the beginning of its historic path as a State, that of the Nigerian Federation. I hope that you can perform this service well, because in this way you will perform your service to your homeland equally well. It is a lesson that I draw from my own life and from my mission. I believe that by carrying out my mission in the See of Peter in the best possible way, I too serve my homeland, as I am capable of. It is our right and it is our duty. May God grant each of us to carry this right in our conscience and fulfill it in our works. To this I add my warmest wishes and the most affectionate blessing, which goes to all those present, but also to all those who are not taking part in our meeting. Certainly the number of those absent is greater than those who were able to get here. We are talking about around two thousand Poles living and working throughout Nigeria. I would also like to address my best wishes to each and every one of you distinctly, and in particular to your families, and to the young generations, who I see present here. I wish, so to speak, to meet with each family, with each compatriot directly, but also with each compatriot who has become such through another compatriot.

Because I also see these combinations in front of me: those of mixed marriages between Poles and Nigerians or between Poles and citizens of other countries.

And now I want us to conclude our meeting: with a common prayer and that you receive the blessing that I give you on this occasion. In union with all my compatriots I pray, as far as possible, every day, reciting the Angelus Domini. Therefore even now I will say it together with you.

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