– How everything looked like on the other side of the window?
– The Holy Father always preferred to meet with young people before supper, but sometimes the supper was delayed and he did not want for the crowd to wait, thus he was going to the window earlier. Always spontaneously. Usually, it was that the crowd was singing and calling the Holy Father, for example, by changing the words of the ecclesiastical song: “Listen Father, how people are begging you, say to us even just a few words.” Then, the Holy Father was saying: “I have to go to them”. And, he was going.
– Did he like these meetings?
– Very; for him, it was a moment of rest after a busy day. He loved young people a lot. So many times, he said that they are the hope of the world and his hope. He knew that they need these meetings, spontaneous conversations with the Pope, just because they miss him. He also missed them and needed them. Thus, he was saying: “If somebody will be asking, Franciszkańska Street 3”. Today, this sounds as a code-symbol of one of the most beautiful traditions of his pontificate.
When I ask the Archbishop for their most beautiful moments of the Polish pilgrimages, I hear about the trip to Wigry. On June 8, 1999, John Paul II visited there a monastery which used to belong to Camaldolese hermits and in the evening, they spent one and a half hour on a boat cruising through Wigry Lake in the company of secretaries and fellow bishops. It was a very pleasant time for me. Among nature, the Holy Father was always more relaxed. We talked a little and joked a little. We also were silent, for a little, as the Holy Father was contemplating. You could tell that he was enjoying a lot this trip through the Mazury’s lake. We all know how he loved nature. The story from Tatra Mountains, when he was blessing a stream, is famous. On Wigry Lake he was also praying.
With the consent of Archbishop Mokrzycki “He liked Tuesdays the most”
M Publisher, Kraków 2008
