After returning to the Vatican, Benedict XVI thanked the Polish Episcopate, authorities and Poles themselves, who "gathered around him in an embrace full of humanity and a spirit of warmth.”
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To commemorate the pilgrimage of Benedict XVI the Polish Post issued a special stamp |
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Remain strong in faith – that was the message of Benedict XVI for the faithful during his pilgrimage to Poland. For four days (May 25th – 28th) the pope visited the sites closest to the heart of John Paul II. Everywhere he appeared he was received enthusiastically by hundreds of thousands of Poles.
Benedict XVI’s encounter with Poles began in Warsaw and ended in Cracow. Along the way he also paid visits to Wadowice – the home town of John Paul II – Kalwaria
Zebrzydowska, Częstochowa – a sanctuary for the cult of Mary as well as the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Germans murdered 1.1 million people, including 1 million Jews.
At Auschwitz Benedict XVI said: "To speak in this place of torment and countless crimes against God and man, without equal in history, is nearly impossible – and particularly difficult and depressing for a Christian, for a pope, who comes from Germany. In such a place there are no words and in the terrifying silence the heart cries out to God: My lord, why are you silent? Why did you allow it? In this silence we bow our heads to the countless individuals who suffered and lost their lives here. The silence is nonetheless a loud cry for forgiveness and unity, a prayer to the living God so that he will never permit such a thing to happen again.
John Paul II was here as a son of the Polish nation. I come as a son of the German nation and that is why I must repeat after my predecessor: I could not refuse to come here. I had to be here. It was and is my responsibility to the truth, to those who suffered here, a duty to God: I am here as the successor of John Paul II and as a son of the German nation – a son of the nation over which a group of criminals gained power through deceptive promises of greatness, the return of honor and meaning to a nation, spreading the perspectives for well-being as well as using terror and scare tactics to turn the nation into a tool of its desire to destroy and rule.
That is why I am here today: to ask for the grace of unity – to ask first and foremost God because only he can open and cleanse human hearts – but also the people who suffered here. I pray for the gift of unity for all those who in the hour of our meeting still suffer until the reign of hatred and violence born of hatred. (...)
After returning to the Vatican, Benedict XVI thanked the Polish Episcopate, authorities and Poles themselves, who "gathered around him in an embrace full of humanity and a spirit of warmth.”
"With gratitude I carry in my heart the experiences that accompanied me during my visit to Poland. It was truly a time of mutual growth in faith, a time of bearing witness and Christian enthusiasm, a time of grace. Let us give thanks to God,” said the pope.
