Very valuable is the role of this Polish Home, the roof over their heads which pilgrims are able to find there; pilgrims who, thanks to God, still come in large numbers from Poland and emigration. Pastoral care, which makes it easier for them to live Rome and its Christian richness in the spirit of faith, is very valuable, and in this respect it is necessary that this house become for them even more a home, a Polish home, their own home. But, it is also necessary for it to mature into the role of a bridge between homeland and emigration, to become a meeting place for our Christian culture with the cultures of other peoples, to serve the spiritual pilgrimage of these cultures, their exchange and mutual enrichment, so that it can contribute to building the unity of Europe and the world based on Christ’s principles of love, justice, truth, and peace.
Dear brothers and sisters, I have given you only a general outline of my thoughts concerning the work that has been brought to life through you and the tasks that lie ahead. Your presence here is not just formal. You want to take a closer look at this work and get to know it better. May this presence also serve to refine the fuller profile and tasks of these institutions, of which you can rightly be proud. You have been informed of their achievements and difficulties in detail, or will be informed by competent people who are responsible for particular sectors.
I thank you once again for your presence; for all that you have done and will do in this section in the future: mainly, it seems, through the Chapters of the Foundation. Concern for the necessary foundations of culture is concern for culture itself. What has arisen thanks to your generosity seeks its own paths and gradually develops, is an expression of a sense of responsibility for the content of our culture and its fate. It is a testimony to the unity of aspirations of a huge number of my compatriots.
May this pilgrimage to the tomb of Saints Peter and Paul, a pilgrimage in the footsteps of the beginnings of Christianity and of its entire history, enrich you inwardly and strengthen your faith, hope, and love.
I entrust all donors and the entire Polish community in the world to the maternal care of Queen of Poland, Our Lady of Jasna Góra. Please accept my gratitude and apostolic blessing. Take them to your families, to your friends, to parishes, to organizations, to environments. Pass them on to all those who derive their roots from the Vistula River.
(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
