Word: wyszynski
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...morning after the election, as the Cardinals prepared to concelebrate Mass in the Sistine Chapel, one of them bumped into Wyszynski in the breakfast room and said cheerfully, "There is sure to be great jubilation in your country today, don't you think?" "Yes," said Wyszynski somberly, "but there will be none in Wojtyla." Indeed, Wojtyla told the St. Peter's crowd that "I was afraid to accept this nomination," and on at least three occasions in the first 24 hours he wept openly: in the conclave, upon his election; during his first appearance on the balcony; and the following...
Overshadowed internationally by Wyszynski, at home Wojtyla is considered to be an equally resilient enemy of Communism and a more threatening figure to the party as a powerful preacher, an intellectual with a reputation for defeating the Marxists in dialogue, and a churchman enormously popular among younger Poles and laborers. Before his election as Pope, it was widely expected that the regime would exercise its veto power to block him from succeeding Wyszynski as Primate...
Wojtyla is equally rhapsodic about canoeing and kayaking, and was in fact on a kayak trip when he was named a bishop in 1958. Wyszynski's staff could not find him for hours, but finally managed to get him back to Warsaw. "The Pope has nominated you to become a bishop," Wyszynski told him. "Will you accept? You know the Holy Father does not like to be turned down." Wojtyla thought for a moment, then said: "Yes. But it doesn't mean that I can't return to my kayak trip, does it?" It did not, and he was back...
Significantly, John Paul II emphasized "collegiality" and advocated "appropriate development" of the Synod of Bishops, now a powerless, muted body. Observers of the Polish church scene note that Wojtyla turned the meetings of Poland's bishops from a rubber stamp for Wyszynski into a collegial and more powerful voice of the church. In his own archdiocese, he sought priestly and lay involvement through an innovative "Pastoral Synod," a seven-year series of discussions on church affairs reminiscent of far more radical nationwide gatherings in Holland that were banned by the Vatican...
Poland's shrewd, 77-year-old Primate, Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, has pressed this opposition role ever since he became Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw in 1948. When Cardinal Wojtyla joined the battle, he used his intellectual powers to persuade both disaffected liberal Catholics and Marxists to take the church seriously. The new Pope, says a Czech Jesuit in exile, has been "more dangerous for Communist countries than Cardinal Wyszynski, because he combats Marxism also on theoretical grounds, and with such success that they have been hard put to refute his arguments...