Every year they came to him. On Christmas Eve usually two families. And, then someone else commuted to Castel Gandolfo. There was a lot of caroling. Apparently like in the good old days of Krakow. Professor Andrzej Zieliński mentions that this visit to John Paul II obliged. John Paul II obliged. For caroling. “Remember, you came here as carolers and you have to fulfill this task well” – he was to say with a smile to the longed guests from Poland. He was very happy when they arrived – says the Archbishop. And, those who could not come in a given year, called. And so, together with the Holy Father, they were singing Christmas carols on the phone. It must have been funny – I said. It looked charming – assures the Archbishop. The Holy Father sang into the earpiece. They, on the other hand, also sang. And so new stanzas of the pastoral “Oj maluśki, maluśki” (“O little one”) were born.
Doctor Ewa Wisłocka says that every year, on the second day of Christmas, friends from the ‘Środowisko’ met at the home of the Ciesielski family. And, there they sang Christmas carols. Then they called the Vatican. And, they sang on the phone. And, they were together again. (…) And, you may regret that you couldn’t be there at that time – says the Archbishop. When I looked at them there in the Vatican or in Castel Gandolfo, I had the impression that they had not aged at all. They were wining against time. I ask if it was also a great joy for the secretaries and in a way a return to memories from the past or maybe a duty, because it was not appropriate to say thatyou had something else to do when the merry bunch was just starting its Christmas concert. Caroling was not a duty for us, but a sincere joy – he responds. It was a custom that took us out of everyday life. Something beyond your everyday duties. And, each of us also was going back in memory to our own family Christmas. Christmas at home.
With the consent of Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki – “Place for everyone” Znak Publishing House, Kraków 2013.
