To the Polish Community in Curitiba (5 July 1980)

On 5 July 1980, the Holy Father addressed the Polish community in the Couto Pereira Stadium, Curitiba, recalling to them the history of their ancestors coming to Brazil to plant the Cross of Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters.

Praised be Our Lord Jesus Christ!

1. I would like my Christian greeting, before this sympathetic assembly, to resonate with an intensity of love similar to that of the words of Saint Peter, whose humble Successor I am once in Jerusalem. Before numerous listeners, "from all the nations under heaven" (cf. Acts 2, 5), in his first speech Saint Peter proclaimed that Jesus is Lord, the Messiah; and everyone, by a miracle, understood him in "his own language" from his country of origin.

I would like, then, that each of those present could grasp, not just wonderfully in the language of the country of origin, but with all their capacity for understanding, the meaning of the acclamation and the affection that accompanies it as a greeting. Yes, I too want to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ, greeting you from the heart, each and every one of you personally, Brazilian by birth or Brazilian by adoption. And, in you, I greet all the different ethnic groups, dispersed and harmoniously integrated in this dear, immense and beautiful Brazil.

2. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, I would like to thank God with you and for you: for the joy of this meeting, for what you are and for what you represent; then, reaffirm the appreciation. Indeed, you, like those who were then listening to Saint Peter in Jerusalem, also come from different nations; and, with the more or less vivid memory of the distant homeland and with peculiar atavistic characteristics, you represent here the ecumenicity, the hospitality and cordiality of this country that welcomed you and where you form a single Brazilian people. Thank God!

And now, in this family gathering — the Brazilian family, the human family and the family of God's children — you well represent the universality of the Church. And the Pope, here with you, as the Successor of Saint Peter "visible foundation of the unity of all the faithful" of the same Church, rejoices at your profession of unity. And I would like to leave you a memory, to perpetuate the friendship of this meeting: a memory that I want you to always carry with you, that you carry in your heart and that it be well present throughout your life. What is this memory?

3. This simple message: Jesus Christ, our brother in humanity, is Lord. Do you promise to always carry this memory with you? Certainly. And for that I express my great satisfaction.

Yes, brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is Lord: He is the only orientation of the spirit, the only direction of intelligence, will and heart for all of us; He is the Redeemer of man; He is the Redeemer of the world; in Him is our salvation and "there is no salvation in any other" outside of Him (cf Act 4, 12). He taught us, by example and with words, that the path of salvation is love: first and foremost, the love of God; and because God paternally cares for everyone and wanted men to form a single family and treat each other as good brothers, we have to love one another, as Jesus Christ loved us and taught us. He is the Lord!

May the human and Christian community that you constitute, in an exemplary good understanding and communion of Brazil, be increasingly enlightened by the love of God and neighbor and continue to prosper, with divine blessings!

4. And now, to you, brothers and sisters of Portuguese origin who have your second homeland here, I want to say in particular:

I am certain that, with your work, as immigrants here, you put your noble traditions and human and Christian qualities at the service of this national community. Preserve as the main treasure of those traditions the Christian faith of your elders. And may your sense of duty to God and your deep-rooted devotion to Our Lady continue to be the force of personal religious life and light for your witness as Christians!

And with these vows of persevering fidelity to Christ and to the Church, by those present here I express and wish the best congratulations to the Portuguese immigrants in Brazil and I bless them from my heart.

Greetings to the faithful of Polish origin

Dear compatriots, dear brothers and sisters!

1. I am happy to be able to meet with you today, my compatriots, in this Brazilian land, in Curitiba, and for this I thank God. You, those present here, and all those you represent had the right to this meeting; I also had a right, as a son of that land, which is near the Vistula, a land to which you are linked, in various ways, by origin or by blood ties, and precisely that land has had the right to this encounter, which it is our homeland. Surely many of you have never seen it; perhaps there are some who have only a vague idea of ​​it and its history, but this does not change the fact that you come from there, some for many generations, and that is where you have your roots. This constitutes a key, one of many, but important, for the mystery of your heart; it is an identity document, which not only speaks of the past millennium, but also of what is in you, which shapes you and which, to a certain degree, decides why you are like that and not differently; and it is also your duty, which has to grow and draw the profile of your life. This deeper reality, engraved in your hearts, is the mystery of the cross of Christ. I stand before you as your compatriot, but also as Successor of Saint Peter and Pastor of the universal Church; I am here, therefore, as a personal witness of Christ and of his cross. and it is also your duty, which has to grow and draw the profile of your life. This deeper reality, engraved in your hearts, is the mystery of the cross of Christ. I stand before you as your compatriot, but also as Successor of Saint Peter and Pastor of the universal Church; I am here, therefore, as a personal witness of Christ and of his cross. and it is also your duty, which has to grow and draw the profile of your life. This deeper reality, engraved in your hearts, is the mystery of the cross of Christ. I stand before you as your compatriot, but also as Successor of Saint Peter and Pastor of the universal Church; I am here, therefore, as a personal witness of Christ and of his cross.

The mystery of the cross and the resurrection is deeply engraved in the history of our country. Indeed, we know that, thanks to the admirable disposition of God's Providence, we have entered, as a nation, into the theater of world history precisely through Holy Baptism, which immerses every man in Christ, in his death, and through this baptism we have been buried together with Christ in his death. And this burial is not an annulment; that's life. Whoever is buried in Christ in this way is freed from sin and enters into new life, just as Christ has risen from the dead thanks to the glory of the Father. With this death man is united to Christ and participates in his resurrection (cf. Rom6, 3-7). Thus, the history of our nation, a rich and difficult history, was born through baptism and our nation was born in baptism. At the base of his story is the cross, on which one dies to live: to live in God and with God, to live in truth, in freedom and in love, to live eternally. From its very beginnings, the fleeting and earthly history of the homeland and the nation has been intertwined with the history of salvation. And here is the fundamental key to this story and to the human heart that has shaped, shapes and will shape this same story. And here is also the key to your hearts and, although you live so far away, yet there, between the Vistula and the Oder, is the land from which you have grown. There are your roots and your origin. To these roots and to this origin,

2. The cross of Christ, a sign in which the love of God the Father and the penetrating unity of the Son of God with human children have been manifested once and for all, a sign in which the Holy Spirit has become the breath that it revives man, it is present in the history of nations, societies, countries and continents, through each human heart, on which this sign is grafted.

This cross was grafted deeply into the hearts of your ancestors, grandparents, fathers and mothers, of whom you are heirs, and who live in you today. One hundred and fifty years ago they began to leave the homeland. Many of them left it out of necessity, because they did not find enough bread in it. They were looking for the land in this immense country, the bread that theirs had not been able to give them. But we know very well how difficult his life was in this foreign land. They left their country empty-handed, often, perhaps, hungry. However, they went with the deep faith grafted on by their parents, with the cross, a sign of salvation deeply rooted in their hearts; and this was his strength and his victory.

It is known that when they arrived here, the best land was already occupied. Most of them settled in the most internal areas of the country, in the interior, which gave a more abundant land: Paraná, Río Grande do Sul, Santa Catalina. Before, the land had to be deforested. Some lands were fertile, others rocky and mountainous. In addition, they were not prepared for agriculture in the new climate and in the new conditions. They worked hard on the areas of land they had received, living scattered over large territories. With their sweat and their blood they bathed this land, in which you now live. Only the rumor of the local conifers reminded them of their native pines and filled them with nostalgia for the abandoned land. But Poland, which they had brought here in their hearts, was their strength and their inspiration. They preserved the language, faith, rites and customs. After having built their houses, they built the church or chapel in the most comfortable place for each colony. They did it with enormous sacrifice. They built alone, offering the work and the material. It was important that Christ could live among them. The priests were few. They worked with dedication. They lived in a colony, going in turn to the others. Sometimes the colonies fought each other to decide where the priest would have to live. And this too was a manifestation of the need of their hearts. Then, at the beginning of this century, the priests of the Divine Word and the religious missionaries of the Society of Christ arrived here for the emigrants from Poland. they built the church or chapel in the most comfortable place for each colony. They did it with enormous sacrifice. They built alone, offering the work and the material. It was important that Christ could live among them. The priests were few. They worked with dedication. They lived in a colony, going in turn to the others. Sometimes the colonies fought each other to decide where the priest would have to live. And this too was a manifestation of the need of their hearts. Then, at the beginning of this century, the priests of the Divine Word and the religious missionaries of the Society of Christ arrived here for the emigrants from Poland. they built the church or chapel in the most comfortable place for each colony. They did it with enormous sacrifice. They built alone, offering the work and the material. It was important that Christ could live among them. The priests were few. They worked with dedication. They lived in a colony, going in turn to the others. Sometimes the colonies fought each other to decide where the priest would have to live. And this too was a manifestation of the need of their hearts. Then, at the beginning of this century, the priests of the Divine Word and the religious missionaries of the Society of Christ arrived here for the emigrants from Poland. The priests were few. They worked with dedication. They lived in a colony, going in turn to the others. Sometimes the colonies fought each other to decide where the priest would have to live. And this too was a manifestation of the need of their hearts. Then, at the beginning of this century, the priests of the Divine Word and the religious missionaries of the Society of Christ arrived here for the emigrants from Poland. The priests were few. They worked with dedication. They lived in a colony, going in turn to the others. Sometimes the colonies fought each other to decide where the priest would have to live. And this too was a manifestation of the need of their hearts. Then, at the beginning of this century, the priests of the Divine Word and the religious missionaries of the Society of Christ arrived here for the emigrants from Poland.

The first religious of the Family of Mary arrived in 1909. Then, the Religious of Charity, sent by the missionary fathers, and, recently, the gray Ursuline Nuns, the Felicianas and the Handmaids of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If I have omitted someone, I apologize.

Others have been brought here by fate in the last world war, and live mainly in Rio de Janeiro, in São Paulo and also in Curitiba. The Brazilian Expedition Corps fought at the end of the war in Italy.

To all these men, to your grandparents and great-grandparents, to your mothers who have taught you prayer and have spoken to you about God, about Christ, about the cross, about salvation, about man, to all the priests and nuns, to each and every one of you, who lives here today, I wish to give, in this unusual moment, a particular testimony. In a square in Curitiba there is a monument to the sower, which symbolizes and recalls the contribution that Polish emigrants, along with other nations, have offered and are offering in the construction of this enormous and young country: a contribution to its civilization and culture, a contribution to your faith.

Do not stop looking at the cross of Christ; in it you will find yourselves, your today and your tomorrow. With a particularly lively call I address the younger generation, you children and young people. Take this inheritance conquered and paid for with the effort, work, sacrifice and prayer of your ancestors. Take it and develop it. Work for the glory of God, for your own good, for the good of society and the country in which you live. For the good of the Church in this country. God is with you, the Church is with you and, in accordance with the mission that Christ has entrusted to her, she will try to meet your needs. The Pope is with you.

3. As a memory of this historic meeting today, I leave you a copy of the image of the Virgin of Czestochowa. I know that you are preparing a pilgrimage of this image. The Mother of Christ and of all men, the One who was before the cross when her Son was dying on it, the one who prayed assiduously with the Apostles in the upper room when the Holy Spirit descended upon them as the fruit of redemption, will visit through this image of Jasna Góra, as it has done for many years in Poland, your parishes, churches, chapels, your environments, your families, your houses, your fields marked by the cross, which are the ground and testimonies of hard work, to often superior to human forces, sacrifice, suffering, nostalgia, dedication, faith,

For this reason, I entrust all of you to her, to the Mother of the Redeemer and to the Mother of our hope: priests, nuns, fathers and mothers of families, children, parents, the sick, those who live in solitude, the abandoned, the elderly, those who suffer Those who work in the fields, in the factories, in the universities, in the schools, in the offices. All together and each one in particular, you present here and all those who join us spiritually. I entrust you to her and you entrust yourselves to her. Trust him with your today and your tomorrow, your faith, hope and charity. Your work, joys, concerns and concerns. In a particular way I entrust to you the generation of young people and their future.

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