Dear Brothers and Sisters, beloved compatriots!
During the first audience for pilgrims from Poland and from the Polish diaspora present in Rome on the occasion of the inauguration of my pontificate, I invited my compatriots to visit me in Rome. I repeated this invitation many times later. As it is known how deep are the historical ties of our nation with Rome.
Now, when by the marvelous arrangement of Providence, a Pole sits on the Roman See of Peter, it seems obvious that these bonds of our Church and nation rooted in history with Rome should be particularly deepened and take on such dimensions as correspond to our times, to today’s needs of the universal Church, the local Churches, and in a given case to the needs of the Church in Poland, as well as of our nation and country. The spiritual needs of every pilgrim who comes here. The Church “which is in Rome”, founded by the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, born of their witness, of their blood of martyrdom, always desires, in the words of Ignatius of Antioch, to “preside in love”. The church wishes – in accordance with its mission – to preside in charity over the whole universal Church and all its parts, “to the ends of the earth”, as well as to all men and women of good will.
(Audience on the occasion of the dedication of the Polish Home. Vatican, November 7,1981)
“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
