Thus, I sign to the words engraved on the aforementioned plaque, which say that “The Polish house (…) it preserves for the history those who made a special contribution to its creation.” It is good that this contribution is also handed down to history in such a way that it will remain forever together with the House the witness of our time and an expression of solidarity and attachment to the faith of the people living on the Vistula (Wisła river) and the Oder (Odra river), and of those who, although scattered throughout the world, grow from the same roots, return to them and wish to enrich themselves with them, as well as the entire family from which they come and with which they feel bound by blood ties, as well as those communities and societies among which they have had to live, work and co-create the common good of their new homelands.
Uprooting is a dangerous social disease. The more a person is aware of his own genealogy, of the spiritual soil from which he grows, the more mature he is to undertake the tasks that a particular situation assigns to him. This also applies to compatriots who have to face the ever new difficulty that is emerging before them in the country, as well as to those who, for various reasons, felt compelled to seek for themselves and their children a new nest in exile.
A characteristic feature of the Polish emigration was that they often acquired the rights to a new homeland through dedication and sacrifice, and often with their own blood poured out for “your” freedom, always associating with it the hope for “our” freedom. The vast majority of our compatriots built their self-awareness not so much on the concept of “emigration” as on the reality of “Homeland”. This was done at different levels of consciousness. Sometimes the reality of “Homeland” boiled down to the place of origin and family relationships. At that time, they thought about building a house to which one could one day return and live with dignity.
(Speech to Friends of the John Paul II Foundation, Vatican, June 27, 1985)
Do not cease 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
