Word: polished
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Even before his welcoming Mass in Warsaw, John Paul issued his first challenge to the Polish regime. It was presented in the guise of a formal greeting to Party Secretary Gierek. "It is [the church's] mission to make man more confident, more courageous, conscious of his rights and duties, socially responsible, creative and useful. For this activity the church does not desire privileges, but only and exclusively what is essential for the accomplishment of its mission...
...early Sunday morning Mass that the Pope celebrated just before leaving Warsaw brought a convincing demonstration that Polish Catholicism has deep roots among the young. The congregation outside St. Anne's Church consisted of youths, tightly packed into the square and surrounding streets. Here, as elsewhere, people continually passed out from the heat (as high as 93°) while the Pope addressed his "children." At last he said
...continuing heat, the Pope went by helicopter to Gniezno and told the welcoming crowd there with a grin, "It was so hot in Rome that I decided I must come to Poland." It was at Gniezno, where Polish Christendom's first see was established in A.D. 1000, that John Paul made his sweeping opening to the East. The day was Pentecost, the feast marking the birth of the New Testament church, when the Apostles began to speak in a profusion of languages. This miracle of tongues was held as proof of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the church...
...that context, John Paul speculated on the ethnic significance of his election as Pope last Oct. 16. "Is it not the intention of the Holy Spirit that this Polish Pope?this Slav Pope?should at this precise moment manifest the spiritual unity of Christian Europe? Although there are two great traditions, that of the West and that of the East, to which it is indebted, through both of them Christian Europe professes 'one faith, one baptism, one God and Father...
That night a papal sing-along for young people occurred. Before he put aside his prepared text to lead the music, the Pope lectured his audience on Polish Catholic culture. "Be nobly proud of it," he said. "Multiply it. Hand it on to future generations." A bittersweet moment came as John Paul led the young people in a mountaineer's ballad: "Don't you miss your country, your fields and pastures, your valleys and streams?" In the song, the mountaineer cannot return because he has been called to heaven, and no one missed the parallel with "Lolek" Wojtyla...