"POLAND HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY PRAYERS"

VATICAN CITY, JUN 17, 1999 (VIS) - This afternoon the Pope travelled by helicopter from Czestochowa to Krakow's Balice airport where, at 6 p.m., the departure ceremony took place.

After arriving at the airport, the Holy Father boarded the popemobile and travelled along a stretch of the runway. Halting at the point where the president of the republic was waiting with his wife, the Pope's private secretary, Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, gave up his place and John Paul II invited the couple to join him in the popemobile. Together they travelled several more meters to the site prepared for the ceremony.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland and Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, archbishop of Krakow, both spoke, followed by the Holy Father.

In his speech, the Pope indicated that he had prayed everywhere "that the daily lives of the people who live in the spirit of the Beatitudes will bear fruit for the prosperity of all in this land. I give thanks to God that I have also been able to place this prayer at the feet of Mary, Queen of Poland, at Jasna Gora."

"To all those who are lovingly forging a prosperous future for the homeland I wish to express today my sincere appreciation and gratitude. ... Once more I wish to express my hope that, with God's help and the willing cooperation of everyone, all difficulties will be overcome. I pray to God for this, thinking above all of the spiritual values which the past generations faithfully preserved and which cannot be abandoned amid rightful concerns for the material well-being of the country. As Pope and as a son of this nation, I address to all people of good will, and in a special way to my brothers and sisters in faith, a fervent call to do everything possible to ensure that Poland enters the third millennium not only as a politically stable and economically prosperous state, but also strengthened by the spirit of mutual and social love."

He displayed his gratitude to all the faithful of the Church in Poland for "their great kindness and their warm welcome," and said: "During these days I have visited many dioceses - some for the first time - but I have not been able to go to all the places to which I was invited. So once more I want to assure you that in spirit I have been in the whole of Poland."

"As I return to the Vatican," John Paul II concluded, "I do not abandon the land of my birth. I take with me the image of my homeland, from the Baltic to the Tatra, and I keep in my heart all that I have been granted to experience among my fellow countrymen. I want to assure you once again that Poland and the Polish people have a special place in my thoughts and prayers. I ask you, beloved brothers and sisters, to support me in my Petrine ministry for as long as Divine Providence enables me to carry it out."

The Pope's plane took off at 7 p.m. and, after a flight of two hours, landed at Rome's Ciampino airport. From there the Holy Father travelled by helicopter to the Vatican.

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