Post by Bonobo on Oct 13, 2018 19:28:39 GMT 1
In 1978 the Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected the Pope. It was a shock both to the world which expected an Italian Pope again and to Poland - its citizens and communist authorities. While Poles generally rejoiced the election, communists were in panic. They didn`t know how to react and Polish diplomats around the world, sieged by reporters and news agencies, waited for instructions in vain.
The first secretary opened a party conference saying: Comrades, we have a problem.
Later they officially expressed their satisfaction and even sent best wishes to the Vatican. You can read it here:
www.tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/swiat-w-szoku-poploch-w-warszawie-towarzysze-mamy-problem,179,3073
zenit.org/articles/book-examines-the-wojtyla-shock/
Communist reaction
Hanna Suchocka, the first Polish prime minister under the presidency of Lech Walesa, recalled, “The first shock was Wojtyla’s image on the day of his election,” as he “emerged from the darkness raising his arms to greet the throng in St. Peter’s Square.”
“It was an even greater shock for the communist authorities,” she affirmed.
“Today we know that the documents that were being prepared to establish contact with the Pope who would be elected in the conclave were elaborated skipping over the mediation of the Polish Church and ‘above all’ of the archbishop of Krakow, Wojtyla,” added Suchocka.
When John Paul II’s election was announced, she said, the communist authorities tried to find positive elements, saying, “better a far away Pope than a close primate.”
However, Suchocka continued, they knew “how dangerous it was for the system, as Wojtyla knew its weak points and could not be influenced.”
She noted that Wojtyla’s election “presented the double face of Polish society: fear of the communists and the unstoppable popular celebration that filled the squares and couldn’t be controlled.”
And on the day of the election, Suchocka recalled, John Paul II, leaving protocol to one side, “invited all ‘not to be afraid.'”
“No one could understand the profound influence of these first words,” she affirmed. “All this was the initial shock that became something constant in a pontificate that changed the Church and the world.”
www.polska.pl/history/history-poland/pope-who-changed-poland/
The election of a Pole to the papacy in October 1978 stirred up emotions around the world. The conclave broke the rule that the Supreme Pontiff had to be Italian and elected a man from behind the Iron Curtain. "It came as a shock to Communists that it was possible to elect someone from the area they controlled without asking them for permission. The Western world, in turn, was shocked at the election of a person from behind the Iron Curtain as it was generally known that a great majority of the region’s inhabitants were controlled by communist authorities," Paweł Skibiński, Ph.D., historian at the University of Warsaw and director of Warsaw’s Museum of John Paul II and Primate Wyszyński, tells Polska.pl in an interview.
The first secretary opened a party conference saying: Comrades, we have a problem.
Later they officially expressed their satisfaction and even sent best wishes to the Vatican. You can read it here:
www.tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/swiat-w-szoku-poploch-w-warszawie-towarzysze-mamy-problem,179,3073
zenit.org/articles/book-examines-the-wojtyla-shock/
Communist reaction
Hanna Suchocka, the first Polish prime minister under the presidency of Lech Walesa, recalled, “The first shock was Wojtyla’s image on the day of his election,” as he “emerged from the darkness raising his arms to greet the throng in St. Peter’s Square.”
“It was an even greater shock for the communist authorities,” she affirmed.
“Today we know that the documents that were being prepared to establish contact with the Pope who would be elected in the conclave were elaborated skipping over the mediation of the Polish Church and ‘above all’ of the archbishop of Krakow, Wojtyla,” added Suchocka.
When John Paul II’s election was announced, she said, the communist authorities tried to find positive elements, saying, “better a far away Pope than a close primate.”
However, Suchocka continued, they knew “how dangerous it was for the system, as Wojtyla knew its weak points and could not be influenced.”
She noted that Wojtyla’s election “presented the double face of Polish society: fear of the communists and the unstoppable popular celebration that filled the squares and couldn’t be controlled.”
And on the day of the election, Suchocka recalled, John Paul II, leaving protocol to one side, “invited all ‘not to be afraid.'”
“No one could understand the profound influence of these first words,” she affirmed. “All this was the initial shock that became something constant in a pontificate that changed the Church and the world.”
www.polska.pl/history/history-poland/pope-who-changed-poland/
The election of a Pole to the papacy in October 1978 stirred up emotions around the world. The conclave broke the rule that the Supreme Pontiff had to be Italian and elected a man from behind the Iron Curtain. "It came as a shock to Communists that it was possible to elect someone from the area they controlled without asking them for permission. The Western world, in turn, was shocked at the election of a person from behind the Iron Curtain as it was generally known that a great majority of the region’s inhabitants were controlled by communist authorities," Paweł Skibiński, Ph.D., historian at the University of Warsaw and director of Warsaw’s Museum of John Paul II and Primate Wyszyński, tells Polska.pl in an interview.