In my speech at UNESCO years ago, I said, among other things: “The nation (…) it is this great community of people who are united by different binders, but above all by culture. A nation exists “from culture” and “for culture.” And, this is why it is the great educator of people to “be more” in a community that has a longer history than every person and his own family” (Paris, June 2, 1980, no. 14).
Today, I repeat these words, thinking about the Foundation, which was created to serve our culture, our Polish tradition, our nation. The Polish House serves this culture through the help offered to pilgrims who come to Rome in search of spiritual encouragement and also an encounter with Christian tradition. It is good that this House for the last ten years has become a real “piece of Poland”, “a sanctuary of Polish culture”, “a part of Poland” – to use the words of the pilgrims themselves. In recent years, more than seventy thousand pilgrims from Poland and other countries of the world have stayed in this House.
The generous work of priests, religious sisters and brothers, and lay workers of this House contributed to this. Let us thank Divine Providence for the fact that Polish pilgrims find here shelter and religious and cultural enrichment of the spirit, and travelers from other countries the truth about the Polish nation. The Polish Institute of Christian Culture is also contributing to it. When we look at this work ten years later, we find that no one predicted that it would develop so quickly, crossing the borders of Rome. Today, we can clearly see how necessary and providential it was so that all that is Christian and human could develop and spread in our country and among compatriots in exile. The merit of this Institute is also the fact that it always seeks contacts with other institutions dealing with culture, that it seeks paths that lead to an encounter with the cultures of other peoples, thus opening itself to world culture. This is an extremely important matter, because thanks to our national culture, we can enrich it with our experiences and thus contribute to the formation of its fullness.
An example of this is the special effort of Archbishop Adam Maida to transfer the idea of the Foundation to the United States, to the University of Washington.
(10th anniversary of the John Paul II Foundation Vatican City, September 26, 1991)
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
