Word: glemp
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...embattled Cardinal Glemp opts for an accommodation...
...evening Mass at St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw was jammed last week, but not just because of Lenten piety. The service marked the first formal appearance of Jozef Cardinal Glemp after his return home from a 27-day journey to Brazil and Argentina. The Primate of Poland was characteristically cautious on this dramatic occasion. Mounting the pulpit, he doffed his scarlet biretta and carefully positioned it alongside the microphone. Next he paused. Then, explaining that he wanted to share his impressions of South America with his 1,000 congregants, the Cardinal set off on a soporific travelogue that...
...first part of Glemp's homily proved to be not only dull but strangely inappropriate. The Cardinal by chance had chosen an awkward time to go away. In the month that he was absent, the Catholic Church in Poland had suddenly faced its most extraordinary external and internal challenges since the end of martial law last July. Externally, the church once again confronted the government of Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski, this time on the removal of crucifixes from state-run school-rooms.* Internally, the church was in considerable turmoil over Glemp's decision last month to silence, with...
...such a situation, the St. John's congregation expected Glemp would have to address at least the emotionally charged cross confrontation in his evening sermon. At last he did. The travelogue had droned on for 15 minutes when the analogy suddenly became unmistakable. Among the Polish emigrants he had visited in South America, the Cardinal declared, "everywhere beside the white eagle [Poland's national symbol] there is a cross. Nobody renounces either the cross or the eagle because they know that these two symbols, united for centuries, represent Poland...
...obvious was the reference that Glemp's listeners waited with anticipation. "The question arises," the Cardinal continued, "Who is offended so much by this cross?" It sounded like a challenge to the government, one that many Poles would gladly welcome. But Glemp had hardly raised the issue before he put it down. "We need peace," he said, centering on the Polish situation in general. "The church strives for social order and for a moral good. But the social order includes tolerance, which cannot be taught with intolerance of the cross in the name of secularity. The church will defend...