Poland invites Benedict XVI
to make another visit and
to choose Cracow for WYD 2015
by Marek Lehnert
Translated from the Italian service of
The official letter from President Bronislaw Komorowski, sent from Warsaw on June 11, and inviting Benedict XVI to visit Poland s second time, has arrived at the Vatican through the Polish embassy to the Holy See.
Vatican press director Fr. Federico Lombardi has limited himself to saying it's too early to speak about it.Especially since the Vatican right now is busy preparing for Benedict XVI's visit to Lebanon in September.
The Polish President, recalling Benedict XVI's first visit to Poland as Pope in May 2006, said he would be honored if the Pontiff would once more agree "to come and share our joys and our concerns".
But even before the invitation from the state, the bishops of Poland had extended an invitation to the Pope while recommending the choice of Cracow as the site of World Youth Day in 2015.
If the Vatican should respond positively, the bishops would advance the start of festivities celebrating 1050 years of the so-called 'Baptism of Poland' which took place in 966. Paul VI had been invited to preside at the millenary celebration in 1966, but the Communist regime at the time would not allow the trip.
The Secretary of the President's office said "we do not expect an immediate response" and that "any date (The Pope chooses) will be good for us".
Archbishop Josef Michalik, president of the Polish bishops' conference, said "The President's invitation expresses well the bond of the Polish people with the Holy See", as well as "an acknowledgment of the mission and role that Benedict XVI plays in the contemporary world".
"He is a Pope," said Michalik, "who has taken on a particularly difficult global mission and who has great affection for the homeland of John Paul II."
On his first visit to Poland in May 2006, Benedict XVI visited Warsaw, Czestochowa, Cracow, Karol Wojtyla's birthplace Wadowice, and the shrines of Kalwarii Zebrzydowska and Lagiewniki. But the greatest public interest was in his visit to the former Nazi death camps in Auschwitz-Birkenau.