Big funeral for cardinal

Press, 1 June 1981, Page 6

Big funeral for cardinal

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw

More than a quarter of a million mourners were expected to gather beneath a giant cross in Warsaw’s Victory Square early today (N.Z. time) for a funeral mass for Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. The mass, which was to be covered live on Polish television, was expected to be Warsaw’s biggest religious ceremony since Pope John' Paul, himself a Pole; said mass in the same spot two years ago.

Envoys from the United States, the Vatican, and Poland’s Communist authorities were to attend the mass for Cardinal Wyszynski, the Primate of Poland, who died of cancer last Thursday aged 79.

The authorities and the Church worked together to organise the ceremony and special trains and buses were laid on for mourners from other parts of the country.

A successor as Primate of Poland, chosen by Pope John Paul, was to be announced during the funeral ceremony. The Pope, who is still recovering, from bullet wounds, was to be represented ‘ by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, who was received by the Polish Communist Party leader, Mr Stanislaw Kania, on Saturday. Victory Square lies in the shadow of the Stalinist-era Palace of Culture, a gift from Russia and a reminder for millions of Poles of the

dark years of the 1950 s when the Church had to struggle for survival.

Cardinal Wyszynski, who became Primate in 1948 as the Communists consolidated their post-war takeover, was ■regarded as a hero of this struggle. He spent three years, from 1953 till 1956, as a virtual prisoner.: '- .

However, the bitter legacy of the Communists’ attempt and failure to break Poland’s 1000-year-old Christian tradition has been swept aside by a national mood of mourning and homage for the-cardinal.

In his last months, Cardinal Wyszynski played a key role in advising and moderating the Solidarity free trade union.