No wonder that the delegate of the Polish Episcopate, Archbishop Bronisław Dąbrowski, who came especially to give you the witness of the Church in Poland and to express his gratitude for everything that the Polish diaspora does for the Church, the nation and the Homeland, participates in these celebrations. With us is also a guardian and pastor of the Polish diaspora on behalf of the Church in Poland – Bishop Szczepan Wesoły. For the work of your generosity, which was recently created in Rome, I thank God, and to you and through you to all the founders I say: “God bless all those whose names appear on the plaque unveiled yesterday along with Mr. Edward Piszek, and God bless all anonymous donors, because – as your late representative said in 1981 – the sacrifice of one dollar or one Deutsche mark, or one peseta was equally valuable to us, as a thousand pounds or more.”
Often among the donors there were elderly and poor people who were attached to the Polish spiritual heritage and were ready to make sacrifices, wanted to share the achievements of their longstanding hard work, gave the “widow’s penny” so that this heritage would be cherished and multiplied, thus showing the Vatican Foundation and the House associated with it, as well as the Center for Christian Polish Culture in Rome and the Documentation Center, trust, and with them a deep hope in this regard.
The best answer to them is and will probably be a reliable service of these institutions to the Church in the Homeland and in exile, Polish Christian culture and its presence in the world. It will also best preserve the memory of those who made this initiative possible.
(Speech to Friends of the John Paul II Foundation, Vatican, June 27, 1985)
Do not cease 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
