Word: polishing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...early 1960s to launch a friendlier policy toward the Communist world. The negotiations that led to last week's recognition of Poland's Communist regime began in 1974. Throughout, Warsaw was far more eager for progress than the church, especially with the election in 1978 of the Polish Pope John Paul II. After Solidarity was outlawed in 1982, the Polish government became desperate for Vatican ties in order to win support among its devoutly Catholic populace and enhance international esteem. John Paul, however, held back because the bishops in Poland feared that their tenuous status would be undermined...
...Polish bishops agreed to the diplomatic ties only because Poland's Parliament on May 17 passed laws allowing religious freedoms that are unprecedented in the Communist world. Dozens of new legal provisions now guarantee the rights of Catholicism and other faiths, encompassing such matters as the church's right to own property, build churches, publish freely and operate charities. The Polish church will also receive compensation for buildings the Communists seized in the 1950s, and members of the clergy are guaranteed pensions. Most observers believed the timing of the decision strongly signaled Pope John Paul's approval of the events...
...Polish hierarchy said last week that the improved relations "will open new spheres of activity for the church for the benefit of the whole society," as well as enhance Poland's international prestige. Warsaw's progovernment daily Zycie Warszawy declared in an editorial that the Vatican is obviously convinced that the changes within Poland are "permanent." In addition, said the newspaper, the diplomatic deal "is a confirmation of the range of reforms taking place not only in Poland but elsewhere in Eastern Europe...
When General Wojciech Jaruzelski had spoken and returned to his seat beside George Bush in the Polish Parliament, Bush reached over and patted the Communist boss's forearm. A little later, clustered with some newly chartered Polish Little Leaguers, he scooped up the grinning kids and pulled them close for the ritual team picture...
...Gdansk the next day, Bush was at the luncheon table again, this one in the 100-year-old home of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa. Women from the neighborhood had prepared an avalanche of Polish dishes, ranging from smoked eel to schnitzel. Bush looked at the groaning board and commented, "My mother taught me to eat what's before you. In this house I would weigh 300 lbs." Framed pictures of Christ were in almost every room; crucifixes hung over most of the doors. By Polish standards the house was a mansion; Walesa noted that his work with Solidarity had some...