Of course, other nations – according to their capabilities – have here their institutes, sometimes very developed and worldwide known for a long time. It is a huge shortcut. This exchange of letters between Rome, which Peter chose as his seat and in which he died, and the new Churches which have arisen and continue to rise in the earthly circumscribed, and which are built on the Roman foundation of faith, bring new values and fresh blood to the universal Church. This is also how the history of the Church in Poland and the universal Church was shaped by the contribution of the Church from Poland; and today in this plan it is necessary to place the Home at via Cassia and in this light to see its program and tasks. This is neither the time nor the place to talk about the programmatic or structural assumptions of this Home. Anyway, I have partially commented on this subject on another occasion. The rest will be complemented by the heads of individual departments, their colleagues and advisors. May this Home, this institution, since it is in Rome, be a tender point marked out at the crossroads of roads – those that come from Rome towards the world, towards Poland, and those that lead to Rome.
It so happened that I recently blessed in the Grottoes of the Vatican Basilica, near the tomb of St. Peter and many of His successors, a new chapel of the Patrons of Europe – Saints Benedict, Cyril and Methodius.
In addition, in these days takes place in Rome, organized by the Lateran University and the Catholic University of Lublin, the International Colloquium on the common Christian roots of the peoples of Europe. Both these facts, although of a different nature, are very meaningful. Their task is to take a more comprehensive look at those values that have co-created and still are co-creating Europe, its culture, its spiritual profile – and to extract the contribution made in Europe, and thus to the world, by the great, noble Slavic nations – a fuller illumination of it. This, too, should shed light on what the Home you are offering me today is to be, and what is to be done in it.
(Audience on the occasion of the dedication of the Polish Home. Vatican, November 7, 1981)
“Do not stop in this good work – Papal Speeches to the John Paul II Foundation”
John Paul II Foundation & Center for Documentation and Study of the Pontificate of John Paul II, Rome 2012
