To Seminarians in the Archbishop's Palace in Krakow ( 23 June 1983)

On Thursday, 23 June 1983, the Holy Father met with seminarians in the Archbishop's Palace in Krakow, to whom he he assured them of his prayers and gave them his blessing.

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this meeting at the altar, a continuation of many other meetings that took place at various times and moments in our lives when I was living in Krakow. These meetings were linked to my vocation as a priest, first, and then as a Bishop; as well as to your vocation, which you accepted and took up following Christ, as he called each of you. I thank him for what has been his grace in our common journey and for all that is and will be his grace in your paths. At the same time, present to Christ, through his Mother, all the questions that life brings with it, often difficult ones, as I have always done and remembering you every day in my prayer. And I also thank you for the same thing. Moving from my own environment to others, I would like to address a few words to my schoolmates who have come to participate in this Most Holy Sacrifice.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of our final exams. So, this is also a short but very warm gathering of old students, a meeting in front of the altar. My dear friends, God bless you, your families and your work on the paths of your life. I also want to remember my priest friends from the times of Krakow, and especially some of them (because there are only a few of them), those ordained by me exactly 25 years ago. Among them is Father Stanislaw, well known to you. And this, with regard to the composition of the small groups of people present at this meeting. I hope that Christ has come down among us with the grace of his Eucharist, that he has united us again, that he has conformed us with the spirit that he administers to those who seek him.

I also wish to impart the blessing to all those present, and extend it at the same time to all those who were unable to participate in this meeting, despite being linked to the environments I mentioned, participating with their hearts. I thank very much the two Cardinals who concelebrated with me. I ask them to impart the final blessing with me.

Allow me to address a final word to our dead, both in the environment and in the group of my high school classmates. We entrust them to Divine Mercy, confident that their souls will find Christ in eternal life.  

After the blessing, he met with a group of seminarians:

I am very happy with this invitation. I will introduce myself to the Rector; I have heard that now, in June, they are making applications for admission. I do not know whether he will reject me because of my age, but I will try. In any case, I thank you for your indulgence, because I understand that I should be the one to come to you; to you, that is, where? In Podzamcze or on Manifesto Street. They tell me that there are many of you and I do not know whether all of you can find a place in the buildings that have always housed the seminarians of Krakow. I think you sleep on beds four stories high. That is how it is . . .

My dear ones, you must remember what I said to the priests of Krakow: that I continue to feel like a priest of the Archdiocese of Krakow, because that is the truth. I am a priest where I became one: in the Archdiocese of Krakow, in the Church of Krakow. I was ordained a priest in the Church of Krakow because I finished the seminary in Krakow, so I belong to this seminary and I have a right over you and you over me, in the sense that the seminary in Krakow prepared me for the priesthood. It is a great thing to prepare a man for the priesthood. The period in which this happened was special, exceptional. I did a very strange seminary, and if someone asked me if I did six years of seminary, I would have to think a lot: which years? In any case, the seminary is preparation for the priesthood and I was prepared for the priesthood in the seminary in Krakow, for which I am very grateful.

I wish that this seminary, which like the whole Church of Krakow has ancient traditions, may prepare you well for the priesthood, so that you may find your way, be confirmed in it, and enter, because the seminary is the entrance to this way, it is the “entrance”, it is already the priesthood.

I wish to bless you with all my heart and I will always be very grateful if you pray for me, and if you happen to be in Rome, come and visit me. I will be very grateful.

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