After the challenge to the Yalta Treaty, Europe was no longer divided. The Iron Curtain was gone. The “Cold War” was over. Slowly, the enormous damage that Marxism had done for many years was noticeable. This was called a real “anthropological catastrophe.” Awakened after a long and frosty period of totalitarianism, man seemed incapable of realizing that he was finally free. While the heavy “legacy” of communism still hung over the East of Europe, from the West a model of a secularized society was coming, infected with consumerism, and especially with practical materialism, which erased the true values of man and his life.
Going back to June 1991, to Poland, John Paul II was finally able to sanction the transition from totalitarianism to democracy. At the same time, he experienced how difficult its reality was for those who had been deprived of their freedom for so long. As his successor in the capital of Krakow, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, noted, the Church also had to learn to fulfill its mission not in the conditions of daily facing the dictatorial regime, but in a situation of regained freedom and cultural and political pluralism.
As the theme of the homily, the Holy Father chose the Decalogue and the commandment of love. That is, the renewal of the spirit as a necessary condition for every transformation, for every social commitment, and the moral dimension as the basis of every democracy. At the end, he confessed, “Not everyone liked my speeches.”
The greatest pain for the Pope was the events that took place two years later, when the Communists won the elections. After regaining their freedom, the people, in a democratic vote, opted for the Marxist left. This voice did not stem from support for Marxism, but from a critical attitude towards capitalism and the free market. Many people, unprepared for the new way of life, suffered from it and were forced to make all sacrifices. And so, especially simple people began to complain that life had been better before.
With the consent of Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “Testimony”.
TBA marketing communication Publishing House. Warsaw 2007
