Word: polishing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
While the Polish people struggle to become masters of their fates, they have certainly proved that they are the captains of their souls...
That thought has a logic that the church can hardly ignore as it tries to find a way out of Poland's impasse. Polish religious leaders have learned to mix political pragmatism with a healthy measure of hope. John Paul is no exception. As he traveled across his native land, the Pope was not afraid to use politically explosive words like "solidarity." But he sought to recast them in ways that would be remembered, and useful, long after the present crisis has passed. Whatever immediate gain the state hoped to reap from the papal visit, John Paul...
...concocted them, readily admitted that "aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre. Implicit is a conviction that [the writer] is wiser than his readers." François de La Rochefoucauld was a duke; elbowed out of prominence in Louis XIV's court, he retreated to an estate to polish his words until nobility could see its face in the surface: "We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others"; "In jealousy there is more self-love than love"; "Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue"; "Lovers never get tired of each other, because they are always...
Veterans of the Pope's 17 previous foreign pilgrimages rated this one among the toughest-and costliest. Reporters were expected to pay on arrival, in foreign exchange, for all services that they would need from the Polish agency Interpress. Among the fees: $70 just to get into a room with telephones and telex transmission machines, with further costs for actually using the facilities; up to $150 a night for double hotel rooms or, when they were full, $45 a night for space in a youth hostel; $230 a day for a Ford Granada car and driver...
Paying for the services did not, moreover, guarantee that they would be available. Green and tan credentials issued to reporters were not valid for such major events as the Pope's first meeting with Polish General Wojciech Jaruzelski and the memorial Mass for Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski. For those occasions, the government issued blue passes to a small fraction of the accredited reporters. Said Reporter Barry James of U.P.I.: "Having a press card entitled you to go into the press center and watch events on closed-circuit television." The telecasts were sometimes hours late, and no one in authority seemed...