Warsaw

I am in Warsaw, Poland where today I visited some extraordinary places commemorating the profound suffering of the people of this city and nation---Christians and Jews alike---at the hands of the Nazis and the Communists.  It has been a deeply moving day.  To their credit, Polish officials have not whitewashed the fact that some Poles collaborated with their oppressors and some Polish Christians participated in or facilitated atrocities against their Jewish brothers and sisters.  But over the course of a blood-soaked century, and even during the darkest hours of Nazi and Soviet domination, a far greater number of Poles of all religious persuasions demonstrated extraordinary honor and courage. The Museum of the Warsaw Uprising, which opened in 2004, is exceptional in giving visitors a palpable sense of the horrors of life for Poles under German occupation and the heroism of the people of Warsaw who attempted, with the meagerest of military resources, to liberate themselves.   The other profoundly moving experience of the day was a visit to the tomb of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko---the holy and charismatic young priest who did so much to inspire Polish resistance to Communism.  Fr. Popieluszko was brutally---and, boy, do I mean brutally---murdered by agents of the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1984.  To pray at his tomb is to join with Poles from all classes and walks of life and with people of Polish descent from many different nations who come to pay their respects.  His beatification is set to take place in Rome next month.  It will be a cause of great joy in this land.