Word: church
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...John Paul's speech to a closed-door session was the most significant statement of his trip. In the Christian-Marxist confrontation, the Pope said, "authentic dialogue must respect the convictions of believers, ensure all the rights of citizens and also the normal conditions for the activity of the church as a religious community to which the vast majority of Poles belong." The dialogue "cannot be easy," he added bluntly, "because it takes place between two concepts of the world that are diametrically opposed...
...Pope has introduced. Popes John XXIII and Paul VI inaugurated Vatican Ostpolitik in contrast to the policies of Pius XII, the coldest of cold warriors, who even found Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, the venerable Primate of Poland, too soft on Communism. Their theory was that concessions for the Polish church could best be won by high-level negotiations between the Vatican and Warsaw. Now, just as he had done when he was a Polish bishop himself, John Paul was announcing that the Polish church leaders ought to do the bargaining directly...
Before leaving Czestochowa, the Pope demonstrated how completely Poles look to the church rather than to the party for leadership. The regime had balked at John Paul's plan to visit the miners in the industrial heartland of Silesia, presumably because it would have been too explicit an embarrassment to have even the workers eating out of his hand. But he held a Mass for workers at the shrine, which drew a special delegation of miners with czaka (plumed ceremonial hats), their wives in traditional peasant dress with brilliant red bandannas on their heads. The crowd of a quarter-million...
...fellow Poles, describing the nervousness of his Italian aides. But the question will more likely be asked by Communist Party leaders all over Eastern Europe, most crucially perhaps by the Soviets. It is in the Kremlin, more than anywhere else, that the conditions under which the East bloc churches live could be quickly changed, for better or worse. Just as the real area of agreement between the Polish party and the Polish church was a fear of domestic disorder that might activate the Red Army divisions stationed in Poland, so John Paul's statements were notably diplomatic only...
...Barry Kalb reports that the Pope's visit is unlikely to produce any dramatic result. The Kremlin reluctantly recognizes that the Polish government needs Catholic support and that it could not indefinitely avoid a visit by the most celebrated Pole since Copernicus. Gierek has gradually improved relations with the church and, since that policy has strengthened his regime and his nation...