Pilgrimage by Pope to homeland planned

Press, 10 April 1987, Page 10

Pilgrimage by Pope to homeland planned

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw

The Polish Government and the Roman Catholic Church have finalised arrangements for Pope John Paul’s pilgrimage to his homeland from June 8 to 14, informed sources said.

Officials on the joint high-level Church-State Commission reached agreement after several months of delicate negotiations. Details are expected to be published next week.

The sources said the programme included a visit to the Baltic port of Gdansk, where the banned free trade union Solidarity was created in 1981 and where the Pope

was expected to meet the union’s leader, Lech Walesa. The Communist authorities have also agreed that the Pope can visit the Warsaw grave of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a proSolidarity priest murdered by security police in 1984,

but they have insisted that he should do so privately. Popieluszko’s grave has become a Solidarity shrine and plans by followers of the dead priest to attract large crowds of banner-waving supporters

to greet the Pope have embarrassed both the Church and the Government, the sources said. The inclusion of Gdansk in the itinerary, despite its Solidarity associations,

honours a promise made to the Pope, when he last visited Poland in 1983, by Communist Party leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski.

The Pope will begin and end his trip in Warsaw, with stops in Lublin, Tarnow, Krakow, Szczecin, Gdynia, Gdansk, Czestochowa and Lodz.

Shortly after his arrival in the capital he will have talks with General Jaruzelski, and will open a Eucharistic Congress of the Polish Church coinciding with his visit At every stage of his tour he will celebrate mass at religious gatherings, each expected to attract thousands of worshippers.