On June 2, 1979, the Pope celebrated the first Mass at the Victory Square, where usually the main national celebrations were taking place. Countless crowds attended the Mass. Cardinal König described it as a true “earthquake.” Seemingly inviolable system, which for more than thirty years had the absolute power, imposing its atheistic creed, became silent and powerless witness of preserving its ideology, in a sense its “charm.” The regime was aware of that and was trying to stop the course of events; in its own way, of course. Anybody was able to see that just by watching TV on these days. The shots were biased, to hide countless masses. As it turned out later on, there was an order to film only priests, nuns, disabled and old people, absolutely to avoid any scenes with children and young people. June 2nd was the eve of Pentecost, the birth of the Church. It was the day, which evoked the memory of the baptism of the Poland, the beginning of the Christian path of the nation. Thus, the Pope said: “Therefore Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude of geography. (…) It is therefore impossible without Christ to understand the history of the Polish nation.” A thunderous, lasting more than ten minutes ovation broke out; the ovation which sounded as an earthquake; strong, stronger, more and more provocative. Ovations, which I am sure echo carried very far. I will not exaggerate, if I will say that the atmosphere seemed to be supernatural. So strong and deep was the unity of the Pope with the Polish nation. And, finally the prayer to the Holy Spirit stated by John Paul II, the prayer which at that time apparently referred to the oppressed Poland.“Let Your Spirit descend. Let Your Spirit descend. And, renew the face of the earth, the face of this land!”
Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “Testimony”
TBA Publisher, Warszawa 2007
