Word: polishing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...return visit to Poland seemed a bold gamble. The government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski had made no secret of the fact that it viewed the papal pilgrimage as a way to rehabilitate Poland in the eyes of the world. But if the authorities thought they could manipulate the Polish-born Pontiff, they were mistaken. John Paul was determined to speak his mind and his heart, however uncomfortable he made his secular hosts. As the Pope moved across Poland, he showed by word and gesture that he understood the meaning of the euphoric parenthesis of freedom that Poles had known...
Just as John Paul was preparing to board the Soviet-built Ilyushin jet that would take him back to Rome, President Reagan sent the Jaruzelski government a message on what the U.S. expected from the papal visit. Addressing a group of Polish Americans in Chicago, many of whom were waving Solidarity pennants, Reagan described the Pope's visit as "a ray of hope for the Polish people." The President hinted that if Poland's military rulers decided to follow the path of liberalization, the Western alliance would consider lifting economic sanctions. Said Reagan: "I urge the Polish authorities...
...Kremlin and its Warsaw Pact allies were uncharacteristically silent. But the subject of Poland is sure to come up at a meeting of Warsaw Pact leaders that could occur in Moscow as early as this week. For the Soviets, there was at least one disturbing sign that the Polish disease may be creeping across East-bloc borders. During a government-sponsored peace congress in Prague, a group of 300 youths marched toward Wenceslas Square, the scene of protests after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and shouted, "We want peace! We want freedom!" The demonstration was small by Polish...
...Polish officials expressed irritation several times during the Pope's stay with the way the visit was progressing. In an interview that appeared on the front pages of government and party newspapers, Deputy Premier Mieczyslaw Rakowski spoke out against "educators who treat history in an uncritical manner" and encourage Polish youths to believe "myths, legends and half-truths." It was a clear reference to John Paul's homily in Czestochowa, in which he cited examples of heroic self-sacrifice from Poland's 1,000-year history. Foreign Minister Stefan Olszowski blamed "Western countries and their media...
...effort to ease church-state tensions, Vatican Spokesman Father Romeo Panciroli deplored the "political interpretations" of events that were "exclusively religious and moral." Before leaving Czestochowa, John Paul also pointedly offered a prayer "for those who wield authority on Polish soil." But he seemed determined to buttress the church's role as the sole mediator between the state and the Polish people. In a special meeting of the Polish episcopate, he urged the church hierarchy to "respond to the need to hear the truth, which is so acute in society." John Paul provided plenty of examples on the remaining...