HOME TOWN JOYFULLY WELCOMES A REJUVENATED JOHN PAUL II

VATICAN CITY, JUN 16, 1999 (VIS) - A rejuvenated Pope John Paul II, Wadowice's most illustrious son, returned to his home town this afternoon for an exuberant welcome from the city's 19,000 inhabitants, who were joined on the city's main square - which has been renamed Pope John Paul II Square - by an estimated 100,000 people from surrounding areas.

The Pope arrived in Wadowice just before 6 p.m. and first paid a visit to the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the parish church where he was baptized in 1920 and which is just several meters away from his boyhood home. In the church he greeted a number of people he knew from the past, and then proceeded to a stage erected just outside the church on the square. This is only his third visit to Wadowice since becoming Pope in 1978: He came here in June 1979 and again in August 1991.

Interrupted countless times during his prepared talk by the applause, cheers, songs and laughter of the crowd, which waved handkerchiefs and yellow and white Vatican flags almost continuously, the Holy Father talked off-the-cuff and bantered with his fellow citizens for nearly an hour beyond the scheduled time of the visit. They responded by chanting "Long live the Pope" and "Sto Lat," Polish for "May you live 100 years." When they said "Sto Lat," he replied, "Easier said than done."

In personal reminiscences, he recalled friends, classmates, teachers, neighbors, store owners, and priests as well as the names of streets, schools, stores and theaters, even reciting several lines from "Antigone" and the names of his fellow actors in this drama. The Pope asked if the same bakery existed where he used to buy cream pastries, and remarked that he had "exaggerated" in eating them after his school exams. The crowd responded "yes" and invited him to stay for some pastries.

Pope John Paul also spoke of his mother, who "filled my childhood with love." He said that Wadowice was "where it all began. Life began, School began. Studies began, theater began and the priesthood began."

He referred to the town's Jewish populace, saying he knew many of them "went through difficult times and were exterminated in ghettos, according to Hitler's plans." He said he imagined that his family's Jewish landlord was dead.

"Once again, during my service to the Universal Church in the See of Peter," said John Paul II in his prepared text, "I come to my native town of Wadowice. With great emotion I gaze upon this city of my childhood years, ... the city of my childhood, my family home, the church of my Baptism. I wish to cross these hospitable thresholds, bow before my native soil and its inhabitants, and utter the words of greeting given to family members upon their return from a long journey: 'Praised be Jesus Christ!'"

"With these words I greet all the people of Wadowice, from the elderly, to whom I am linked by the bonds of childhood and adolescence, to the children who are seeing for the first time the Pope who has come to visit them."

He referred to the image of Mary which he would crown after finishing his talk. "The conviction that the Mother of God has a unique role in the life of the Church and of every Christian was always dear to our forefathers. Over the last 100 years the people of Wadowice expressed this in a special way when they gathered to venerate the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and made her the patron of their personal, family and social life."

"During my first visit to Wadowice," the Pope went on, "I asked you to surround me with constant prayer before the image of this Mother. I see that my request has been inscribed in stone. ... Today I thank you warmly for this prayer. I always feel it at work and I ask you to continue to pray for me. I have so much need of your prayer. The Church has need of it. The entire world has need of it."

In concluding remarks, the Holy Father thanked everyone for the newly-built Home for Single Mothers in Wadowice. "Those women who, despite the difficulties and sacrifices, wish to keep the fruit of their motherhood, can find shelter and help there. I am grateful for this great gift of your love for the human person and your concern for life. I am all the more grateful because the home is named after my mother Emilia."

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THE POPE CELEBRATES MASS IN WAWEL CATHEDRAL

VATICAN CITY, JUN 17, 1999 (VIS) - This morning the Pope celebrated Mass in the Saint Stanislaus Chapel in the presence of 1,000 people gathered in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral. On November 2, 1946, the day after his ordination as a priest, he celebrated his first Mass in the crypt of the same cathedral.

Before the celebration of the Eucharist, John Paul II gave thanks to God "for making it possible for me to stand once again at the relics of Saint Stanislaus in order to preside over a sacrifice of thanksgiving for this entire ecclesiastic community. ... I praise God for my being able to take part in this great spiritual legacy, especially as the bishop of Krakow, and for deriving strength and inspiration from its richness as the bishop of Rome."

"I wish to extend my special greeting to the student priests of the seminary of the archdiocese of Krakow. I rejoice in your presence here and thank God for the gift of vocation that He has granted you. During this holy Mass I wish to entrust to God each and every one of you. I also want to ask the Holy Spirit to confer upon you His gifts, indispensable for preserving your vocation, fulfilling it with prudence and love in your priesthood, and rendering it the light of the world in the third millennium. I ask you to offer my cordial greetings and blessing to your brothers in all Polish seminaries, run either by dioceses or religious orders."
After the celebration of the Eucharist, John Paul II made a private visit to the tomb of his family in the cemetery of Rakowice. Under torrential rain and protected by a large white umbrella, the Pope knelt for a few minutes while a choir sang the "De Profundis." Before leaving the cemetery, the Holy Father lit a votive candle and signed a gold visitors' book at the pantheon. He himself had opened the first page of this book on his last visit on June 9, 1997.

From Krakow the Pope travelled by helicopter to Gliwice where, in an open area on the outskirts of the town, he prayed the angelus before a large crowd.

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POPE MAKES UNSCHEDULED VISITS TO GLIWICE AND CZESTOCHOWA

VATICAN CITY, JUN 17, 1999 (VIS) - Pope John Paul made an unscheduled visit today to Gliwice, 150 kilometers west of Krakow, stopping briefly to greet the pastors and faithful of the Church there whom he was unable to meet as planned last Tuesday evening when he was bedridden with a fever. Shortly after his arrival by helicopter, he recited the angelus in the presence of 500,000 faithful.

Afterwards he added another unscheduled stop, travelling to Czestochowa, 100 kilometers north of Krakow, to visit Poland's most revered shrine, Jasna Gora, also known as the Shrine of the Black Madonna. He arrived at 1 p.m. by helicopter.

"The path of my pilgrimage to my homeland could not omit the Shrine of Jasna Gora," said the Pope in his greetings to the estimated 250,000 pilgrims gathered in Czestochowa. "This place is so close to my heart and so close to each of you, dear brothers and sisters. We have grown used to coming here and to bringing our personal and family matters, as well as the vital issues of the nation, to the Mother of God's Son and the Mother of us all, just like our ancestors did for centuries."

"I wish to thank Mary," John Paul II added, "for the care extended in these days of my pastoral ministry in the Church of my homeland. Mary has been with us throughout this pilgrimage, interceding to her Son for spiritual gifts for us so that we may be able to 'do what He tells us'. I wish to thank her for every single spiritual and material good that is taking place on Polish soil.

"To the motherly care of Our Lady of Jasna Gora I entrust myself, the Church and all my compatriots, not excluding anyone. I entrust to her each Polish heart, each home and each family. We are all her children. May Mary be an example and guide us in our everyday, mundane work."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 17, 1999, (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Archbishop Claude Feidt of Chambery, who is also bishop of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Tarentaise, as archbishop of Aix (area 4,580, population 809,000, Catholics 650,000, priests 224, religious 436), France.

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TELEGRAM FOR MEXICAN EARTHQUAKE

VATICAN CITY, JUN 17, 1999 (VIS) - Made public yesterday evening was the following telegram, sent in the Pope's name by Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, to Archbishop Justo Mullor Garcia, apostolic nuncio in Mexico, for the earthquake which struck that country on June 15:

"Having heard the sad news of the earthquake which has caused victims, injuries and so much material damage in Mexico, His Holiness John Paul II offers his prayers to the Lord for the eternal repose of the deceased and entreats Your Excellency to express his sincere condolences to their families, as well as his sentiments of paternal spiritual closeness to the injured and to those deprived of their possessions. At the same time he calls upon institutions and people of good will to kindly offer practical assistance to the afflicted, compassionately and in a spirit of Christian solidarity. With these sentiments, the Holy Father imparts the consolation of his apostolic blessing upon the victims and those who help them."

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