Canada Free Press -- ARCHIVES

Because without America, there is no free world.

Return to Canada Free Press

Editor Desk

Karol Wojtyla and a rosary of the heart


by Judi McLeod
September 2, 2002

For one splendid week this summer, the City of Toronto was a better place.

A sort of peace of heart descended upon T.O. during Youth Day activities.

Even people not close to the events commented on the perceptible feelings of goodwill, and the truly remarkable behaviour of tens of thousands of youth here to meet with John Paul II.

A friend, who attended the Downsview Mass, told me it was biblical in inspiration, beginning under black ominous skies and rain. "All of a sudden there was the tiniest patch of the bluest blue, broadening with the sun and a rainbow painting the skies just before the Pope’s address. I know it was something that I’ll never see again in my lifetime."

There can be little doubt that when the Holy Father interrupted his opening address to his beloved young people, to muse, "the wind, the rain and the sun", he was thinking of faraway Nowa Huta, where, as Bishop Karol Wojtyla he often led Mass in open fields, in the face of brutal Communism.

On the day of his departure flight from T.O., I was one of many people who were sad. It happened that a politician I know was part of the departure scene at Pearson International. He promised me a rosary blessed by the pontiff.

I had found myself crying watching John Paul II on television.

As a long time observer of left wing ideology in public education, I worried about today’s youth. Watching them in the audience of the Holy Father renewed my faith. No left wing source could ever hold the same sway over them. It was moving to hear their repeated haunting chant, "John Paul II, we love you."

It wasn’t until he was in Poland, that I read about the courageous Karol Wojtyla and the story of Nowa Huta.

The struggle to build the Nowa Huta church is one of the great clashes between the Catholic Church and Communists in post-war Poland. According to a John Paul II biography posted on the Vatican website, "It is a small gem of a story, multifaceted, 20 years in the making,"

"Nowa Huta was a brand new town built by the Communists in the early `50s outside of Krakow. The town was in Bishop Karol Wojtla’s jurisdiction. It was meant to be a workers' paradise, built on Communist principles, a visible rebuke to the `decadent’, spiritually besotted Krakow. The regime assumed that the workers, of course, would be atheists, so the town would be built without a church. But the people soon made it clear they did want one. Wojtyla communicated their desire, and the regime opposed it.

"The conflict became an intense symbol of the opposition between the Catholic Church and the Communist State. It was a conflict between the workers’ world that was supposed to be beyond religion--and the actual workers singing old Polish hymns that started with the words, `We want God.’ The Communist Party reluctantly issued a permit in 1958 and then withdrew it in 1962.

"Years went by as Karol Wojtyla joined by other priests–especially Father Gorlaney–met with authorities and patiently filed and refiled for building permits. Crosses were put up in the designated area and then pulled down at night, only to mysteriously reappear weeks later.

"Meanwhile Bishop Wojtyla and other priests gave sermons in the open field, winter and summer, under a burning sun, in freezing rain and snow. Year after year, Wojtyla celebrated Christmas Mass at the site where the church was supposed to be built. Thousands peacefully lined up for communion, but tension was building.

"By this time, the Communist, local leaders, residents and Catholic Church had dug in, their positions seemingly intractable. The Communists’ compromise to allow a church to be built outside the town was ejected--until Karol Wojtyla, the realist, the negotiator broke the stalemate, persuading everyone that the existence of the church transcended all other considerations. The time to bend was now.

"In May 1977, one year before he became Pope--almost 20 years after the first request for a permit--Karol Wojtyla consecrated the church at Nowa Huta.

"What the worshippers were most proud of--and it was a symbol Karol Wojtyla helped make into a reality--is the gigantic crucifix that hangs over the new altar. It was made out of shrapnel that had been taken from the wounds of Polish soldiers, collected and sent from all over the country to make the sculpture in the new church.

"From the first day of his election, John Paul II’s pontificate raised concern in Central Committee headquarters. The Canadian reporter, Eric Margolis, described it this way: "I was the first Western journalist inside the KGB headquarters in 1990. The generals told me that the Vatican and the Pope above all was regarded as their number one, most dangerous enemy in the world.

"Again and again, people told us that it was John Paul II’s 1979 trip (to Poland) that was the fulcrum of revolution which led to the collapse of Communism. Timothy Garton Ash put it this way: `Without the Pope, no Solidarity, Without Solidarity, no Gorbachev. Without Gorbachev, no fall of Communism’ ("In fact, Gorbachev himself gave the Kremlin’s long-term enemy this due: `It would have been impossible without the Pope.’)

"It took time; it took the Pope’s support from Rome--some of it financial; it took several more trips in 1983 and 1987. But the flame was lit. It would smolder and flicker before it burned from one end of Poland to the other. Millions of people spread the revolution, but it began with the Pope’s trip home in 1979. As General Jaruzelski said, "That was the detonator."

Behind the white robes of John Paul II there will always be Karol Wojtyla.

Toronto was so blessed to have his miraculous presence here.

Meantime, I never did receive the promised rosary from the politician friend.

But I won’t be needing them, for Karol Wojtla already left them in my heart.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement