Deeply in memory I have the meeting in Gniezno in June 1979, when for the first time the Pope from Krakow was able to celebrate the Eucharist at the Lech’s Hill, in the presence of an unforgettable Primate of Millennium, entire Episcopate, many pilgrims not only from Poland, but also from neighboring countries. Today, it will be nice to recall the homily delivered in Gniezno, which in a way became the program of the pontificate. I was saying at that time: “Is it not Christ’s will, is it not what the Holy Spirit disposes, that this Polish Pope, this Slav Pope, should at this precise moment manifest the spiritual unity of Christian Europe which consist of the two great traditions, that of the West and that of the East? Yes, it is Christ’s will.” (…) From this place a huge wave came, the power of the Holy Spirit. Over here it started to take specific shapes of the new evangelization. In fact, at that time great changes happened, new options were created, new people came. The wall which was diving Europe collapsed. Fifty years after the end of the Second World War, its effects no longer were carving the shape of our continent. Half-century long separation ended; the separation for which the biggest price was paid by millions of people from Central and Easter Europe.
John Paul II “The Autobiography”
Polish Publishing house – Literary Press – 2005
