On December 17, 2021, I had the honor of attending in Accra the presentation of Mrs. Dorothy Mensah-Aggrey’s book “Thank you! I’II Say it Again“. I was invited not only to participate in this event, but also to say a few words. In my speech, I said that I did not have a prepared address because I decided to speak with my heart. I realized then that the question of gratitude is somehow eluding us.
There is a lot of talk about human rights, unfortunately, most often in the context of their non-observance. Sometimes someone will mention human duties, but almost no one mentions gratitude. Each of us has something to be thankful for, and maybe we don’t even realize how many people. At the very beginning, we should thank the Lord Almighty God for the gift of life. Then to our parents, for wanting to accept our lives and taking care of them. And then there is a host of many people, teachers and masters who deserve our thanks, from whom we have been brought to where we are now, or we wonder where we could be if we followed their advice fully.
Among the many people to whom I would like to say ‘thank you’ many times is to the person of St. John Paul II. And not only because he was the first Polish Pope, which is of great importance to a Catholic from Polish, but because his person and teaching have a great impact on my life.
I will never forget that memorable day of October 16, 1978, when the Polish television broke the news of the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Kraków, to the See of Saint Peter. For me, it was also a special year, because it was the same year in the spring that I received Holy Communion for the first time. I remember then the incredible enthusiasm and sense of pride that enveloped over the whole of Poland. It is true that was the first time in my life, I heard about Cardinal Wojtyla, but due to the fact that he was proclaimed Pope, I felt that he was someone very close to me.
Such feeling intensified when I saw the same in others, and especially in our parish church in Małogoszcz, where with what great reverence and hope the name of Pope John Paul II was pronounced. In the Catholic press, in the stories of priests and acquaintances, were especially mentioned and depicted an extraordinary figure of Karol Wojtyła, who later became pope, as an extraordinary person from childhood, especially talented and sensitive, and that from an early age was endowed with God’s Spirit, preparing him for an extraordinary mission.
In order to understand such an attitude and the creation of a legend already in life, one must realize what life in socialist Poland looked like at that time. The end of the seventies was the beginning of the economic crisis. There was a shortage of basic necessities for life. Polish cities were gray and sad. In general, there was discouragement and malaise which contrasted with the incredible optimism emanating from government television.
Despite the fact that the majority of Poles were believers and practitioner-Catholics, the Church was absent from the mass media. The official non-denominational nature of the state, in many publications, heralded the disappearance of the phenomenon of religion, as education developed and scientific and technical progress. Only that this progress was not very visible, and the growing distance between socialist countries and the countries of Western Europe and the USA was noticed.
Despite the official propaganda about rotten capitalism, which would soon come to an imminent end, the authorities urgently regulated the issuance of passports and permits to travel abroad. In such a grey socialist existence, a smiling, energetic figure of John Paul II appeared, who called us not to be afraid and to open the door to Christ. With his choice, he brought us all a great gift at that time, and that gift was the hope for a better tomorrow. He spoke about the dignity of man, about the dignity of his life and his work. Here, we have all realized that we are part of the great family of the Catholic Church, which has no intention of dying out at all, and what is more, is developing more and more.
Government television could no longer pretend that the Church did not exist and that this was a marginal phenomenon. With great emotion we followed the meeting, celebrations and travels of John Paul II, first in Italy and then in the world. His first trip abroad was to Mexico. I was very impressed by the crowds of people who came to meet the Pope. Then there was his first pilgrimage to his homeland, which I followed together with my parents on a black-and-white TV. I did not understand much of what St. John Paul II was saying at that time, but I felt subconsciously that he was saying very important and wise things, that he was the shepherd with whom to walk. I also felt that he was the prophet who would lead us all out of this sense of impossibility and enslavement into complete freedom and conscious action.
Even when I was still a child, I could already feel and was aware that the system in which we live is based on fiction, and that for the good of individuals and the whole nation, it is necessary to get out of it as soon as possible. John Paul II spoke a lot about human dignity and about subjectivity which he was driving at that all state institutions, as well as the state itself as such, are to serve man and his development, and not vice versa. The Pope also made me aware that faith has its social dimension and does not belong only to the intimate sphere of human life, but should also have a concrete impact on life and the choices greater or lesser that we make every day.
This great enthusiasm and joy, as well as the hopes that accompanied the Pope during his first pilgrimage, seemed to have borne fruit after a year in the form of the “Solidarity” movement. These changes being seen through the eyes of this eleven-year-old child, I really felt that here I was a witness of historical changes, where a new Poland is being born before my eyes, which returns to its Catholic roots and begins the process that will make it a modern state. This was the case at the beginning, but very soon I would notice that these changes for the better would not go so easily. The economic crisis began to deepen, the list of unattainable goods and materials on the market began to expand alarmingly, inflation was making crazy progress, in which one had the impression that the country seemed to have lost the direction in which it wanted to go.
On May 13, 1981, all the hearts of Poles froze when we learned about the assassination attempt on our compatriot in Vatican. The nation was united in prayer, so that the Almighty would leave us the Pope, who at this particular moment we need so much. Our prayers were answered, John Paul II, recovered. But despite this, one could sense the catastrophe hanging in the air, which came on December 13, 1981, in the form of martial law. For everyone, at least in my surroundings, it was a big surprise.
Overnight, the whole country came under the control of the army and police, thousands of people were interned and arrested, and the Solidarity movement was paralyzed. The difficulties of everyday life deepened and it was difficult to dream of a better future in the coming years. In those moments of uncertainty and difficulty, St. John Paul II gave us hope and encouragement. We were sure that he not only prayed for us, but also sought help for his homeland in other fields.
Our great compatriot reminded us of the Christian life and of not getting lost in the fight for freedom, and of remembering what Christ taught us. It is very easy to burn bridges, it is more difficult to rebuild them. As far as possible, care must be taken to ensure that they are not destroyed.
I saw John Paul II for the first time during his second pilgrimage to Poland in 1983, and more precisely at the Holy Mass on the ramparts of shrine of Black Madonna in Częstochowa on June 16. Of course, I was standing in a huge crowd, far from the main altar, and the Holy Father was a small point, but I knew that it was him.
Although far away, I felt so close. I had the impression that despite such a great distance, I felt that as if he was talking to me in a special way. For the second time in similar circumstances, I saw John Paul II during the Holy Mass in Tarnów on June 10, 1987, where I was one of the two million gathered for this celebration. I could already see his figure clearly, but it was still too far to see the facial features. But I still felt that he was speaking to me in a special way. When I was beginning to grow older, I slowly began to reach for the texts of St. John Paul II. I was particularly impressed by the “Letter to young people all over the world “Parati semper”, on the occasion of the International Year of Youth“. 31.03.1985.
When it came out, I was eighteen years old. In Poland, it is the age when a person legally becomes an adult, in a word, enters adult life. It was a year before the final exams of high school, i.e. the time when we make decisions about what to do next. I began my meditation on this letter at a vocational retreat, and then I continued to reflect on it. In retrospect, I can say that he also contributed to my final decision to follow the path of the priestly vocation.
The end of the eighties was a time of returning optimism and hope for building a better world, and thus for the fall of communism, which theoretically took place in Poland on June 4, 1984. We were all convinced that these positive changes occurred largely through the instrumentality of the extraordinary Pope, thanks to St. John Paul II.
In 1988, I entered the Major Seminary in Kielce. Of course, it is not difficult to imagine that in the formation process a very important role was played by the person and teaching of John Paul II. Many of my professors knew him personally, whether from the Krakow period or when they studied in Rome. With bated breath we listened to the story of our compatriot. In 1990 I was sent to the Polish Major Seminary in Paris, in France, for two years. There were ten of us seminarians in the whole Seminary. In April 1991, as a whole seminary, we went on a pilgrimage to Rome. It was my first visit to the eternal city. We received the grace of attending morning Mass with the Pope in his private chapel.
After the Holy Mass, John Paul II greeted each of us and asked what diocese we were from. There was no time for a longer conversation, although I wouldn’t say much anyway out of emotion. It was an amazing feeling to pray together with the Successor of St. Peter and to shake his hand, and not so long ago it was a dream only to be able to see him up close. After my returning to Poland, John Paul II was still present in my formation in the Seminary. I admired his inexhaustible energy and the new initiatives with which he animated the Church. We could feel his spiritual presence and the care he had for us. After my priest ordination, for two years I worked at the parish as a vicar in Busko Zdrój, in the parish of St. Albert Chmielowski, about whom Karol Wojtyla wrote the drama “Brother of our God”.
After two years, I was sent to study canon law in Rome. During this time, I managed to see John Paul II more often at the Angelus prayer, during solemn Holy Masses in the Vatican and several times I managed to be at private audiences accompanying our bishops or with groups of pilgrims. I particularly remembered John Paul II’s visit to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy on 26 April 2001, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of its foundation. We didn’t say much, but I remembered a deep, papal look.
A few months later, I left diplomatic Academy for my first post in Apostolic Nunciature in Belarus. At that time, I told many people about the Pope, who were very curious about his person and the place where he had to live and work, that is, in the Vatican. Sad news about the illness and then about the death of our great compatriot found me during a holiday in Poland. I interrupted my vacation and returned to the Nunciature in Minsk.
Many people, not only Catholics, laid flowers, burned candles in front of the Nunciature building and entered into the book of condolences. In many parishes Holy Masses were organized for the deceased pope, where I participated in many. The sadness was great, as if we had lost someone in the family. This pain, as if John Paul II had performed another miracle, made the Poles abandoned their divisions and decided to unite in the name of a great compatriot. Unfortunately, it did not last too long, but it was proof that such a thing was possible. After Belarus, I was sent to work in Croatia. There, with great pride, I discovered how much love Croats have for John Paul II. Some even tried to convince me that he was not really a Pole, but a White Croat. Thanks to John Paul, my country in Croatia was particularly joyful.
Then I was called to work in the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and I settled in the territory of the Vatican in Santa Marta House. During my stay in the Vatican, I celebrated Mass every day in St. Peter’s Basilica. Every Thursday I attended Holy Mass in Polish in the grottoes of this basilica at the tomb of St. John Paul II. In the basilica I very often celebrated Holy Mass at the altar of St. Sebastian, where later the body of the holy pope was transferred. I was fortunate enough to attend the Beatification Mass on May 1, 2011 celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI and the Canonization Mass on April 27, 2014, celebrated by Pope Francis.
In retrospect, I can see how important and significant the Pope’s presence was in my life in many ways. How often it has been for me a point of reference and a source of inspirations for my decisions or in the foretold word. In many places in the world, when I mentioned that I am a Pole, immediately, the people’s first association that came was the person of John Paul II. Also here in Ghana, many people recalled his visit in May 1980. Once he’s in heaven, he doesn’t stop helping me.
I must say this once again, I thank you, St. John Paul II, for your presence in my life, for the hope you have given me for the strength of the example of strong faith and goodness that transforms hearts. Thank you for your teaching, which strengthens your brothers and sisters in the faith. Thank you for your prayerful intercession, I thank you Saint John Paul II for your presence in my life.
