By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--October 3, 2012
Cover Story | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
According to the Vatican website, "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 withdrew it in 1962." But steadfast Bishop Karol Wojtyla was about to prove that there is more than one way to win a war. “Years went by and Wojtyla, joined by other priests met with authorities and patiently filed and refiled for building permits. Crosses were put up in the designated area and were then pulled down in the darkness of night, only to reappear weeks later.” States the Vatican website: "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 Communists, 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 dedicated the church at Nowa Huta. "What the worshippers were most proud of, and it was a symbol Karol Wojtyla helped make into a reality, was the giant crucifix that hung over the 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 for the new church. "From the first day of his election, John Paul II’s pontificate raised concern in Central Committee headquarters. Canadian reporter Eric Margolis (Toronto Sun) put 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.’" We don’t have to rely only on journalists to understand the full impact of John Paul II on the fall of communism. It was the Polish pope who rocked former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev to the very core of his atheist foundations. Gorbachev, who, with a little help from UN friends, was to someday go on to replace the Ten Commandments with the Earth Charter, gave this due to the Kremlin’s number one enemy: "It would have been impossible without the pope." It took the Power of One to build the church in Nowa Huta with its magnificent crucifix built of shrapnel from soldier’s wounds.Generations later it now falls to 77.7 million Catholics to save America from Obama imposed U.S. Marxism. Lucianne.com and Canada Free Press reader Bob Preyss, who is working on a five-day Prayer Circle, a sort of Patriot’s Prayer Day starting November 1 and running right through Election Day, asked me if I could send a prayer. The two-word prayer I send, is as meaningful today as it was back in post-war Poland. My prayer for the miracle to save America from Obama is: “Karol Wojtyla”.
View Comments