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Posted Saturday May 27, 2006 at 12:01 p.m. CDT
Looking for The Word From Rome column? Here is a link to past columns.
Examining the trip thus far
By John L. Allen Jr.
Krakow, Poland
Editor's Note: Read NCRonline.org daily for John Allen's reports on Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Poland May 25-28.
Sunday's visit of a German pope to the infamous Nazi death camp in Auschwitz was very much the personal desire of Benedict XVI, his spokesman told a Krakow press conference today.
In the original draft of the Poland trip, Joaquin Navarro-Valls said, there was no plan for a visit to Auschwitz, but the pope insisted that it be added.
"I must go to Auschwitz," Navarro-Valls quoted the pope as saying. "I cannot not go."
Navarro-Valls said the visit would be Benedict XVI's third time in Auschwitz. He first went in 1979, along with Pope John Paul II, and visited again in 1980 as part of a group of German bishops.
On Sunday, Benedict will stop at the "Wall of Death" at Auschwitz, where prisoners were routinely shot; meet a group of survivors; and visit the cell of St. Maximilan Kolbe, the Polish priest canonized by John Paul II who died at Auschwitz after offering his life to save a condemned prisoner.
Benedict will also visit a Center of Dialogue and Prayer operated by the Catholic Church at Auschwitz, and then take part in an inter-faith service at Birkenau. That service will feature a Jewish cantor and the Chief Rabbi of Poland, along with prayer in Hebrew.
Organizers said that there will be none of the pageantry that normally accompanies a papal arrival. Other than a throne from which he can make his remarks, Benedict will not be surrounded by any special architecture or symbolism.
The idea, organizers said, is to "let the place speak for itself."
"John Paul II went to Auschwitz as a son of the Polish people," Navarro-Valls said. "Benedict goes as a son of the German people. This is an important point."
An Israeli journalist asked Navarro-Valls about controversies in Poland over Radio Maryja, the popular Catholic broadcaster with close ties to the country's center-right government. Radio Maryja has been accused of occasionally flirting with anti-Semitism.
The broadcaster's profile has hovered around the edges of Benedict's visit. Today in Wadowice, for example, the hometown of John Paul II, a sign appeared that read: "Holy Father, the Family of Radio Maryja Welcomes You!"
Navarro-Valls said that it often happens that during a papal trip issues arise that are really the competence of the local bishops.
"The Polish bishops have said things about this in the past, and perhaps will do so in the future," he said.
Another flashpoint for Catholic-Jewish relations cropped up Thursday, when some Polish Jews and the Israeli ambassador to Poland complained that Benedict XVI's popemobile did not stop before a memorial to the victims of the Warsaw ghetto uprising as the pope made his way into town.
A trip organizer told the press conference that no stopover had been planned, and that the popemobile simply slowed down in front of the monument.
Asked about Benedict's "strategy" for the Poland trip, Navarro-Valls said he preferred the term "pastoral approach."
Navarro-Valls called it a "pastoral approach of intelligence."
"His messages are full of content that is sometimes difficult to express, but he does it very well," Navarro-Valls said. "These are very dense texts."
Navarro-Valls said that Benedict has repeatedly invoked the word "rationality" over these days.
""He wants to insist on it," Navarro-Valls said. "Exactly what our epoch needs, is what it is asking of the pope," meaning a renewed emphasis on reason in the intellectual life and in the life of faith.
Navarro-Valls said Benedict has been satisfied with the large and enthusiastic crowds, but he's more content that the trip is unfolding as he wished -- "not just sentimental, but an itinerary of faith."
| More Trip Coverage | John Allen's preview of the papal trip: Benedict's concerns for Poland trip:.
May 25, The trip is launched: Benedict sets about reawakening Europe's Christian roots.
May 26, A social survey of Poland: Poles are staunchly Catholic but also independent.
May 26, The Pope's message in Victory Square and at Czestochowa: Faith is a gift but also a task.
May 26, Subtext to the pope's visit: Some interesting nuggets.
May 27, A great trip for pilgrims: Benedict offers spiritual and pastoral basics.
May 27, Exploring John Paul's roots: Benedict's visit to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary.
May 27, A look at the issues: Examining the trip thus far.
May 28, The pope's take on death camps: Attempting to slay God was Auschwitz's greatest evil.
May 28, The Poles' speical vocation: Pope tells Poles 'share the treasure of your faith'.
May 28, U.S.-Polish ties: Knights of Columbus opening Polish councils. |
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Navarro-Valls said Benedict is trying to offer a message to the Polish people, "but one with full relevance for all peoples, and all Catholics."
With reference to historic tensions between Poles and Germans, Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said that he hoped the warm welcome shown to Benedict XVI in Poland would have a "positive influence on future relations" between the two nations.
Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek responded to a question about various priests in Poland who have been accused of collaborating with the Communist authorities during the Soviet era, part of a broader national debate about "screening" Poles for past ties with the Communists.
"Screening should not be limited to the clergy," Pieronek said. "I would rather see it in the context of an overall process that also includes clergy."
Pieronek said that Benedict's comments Thursday, when he called for truth but also warned against "the arrogant claim of setting ourselves up to judge earlier generations, who lived in different times and different circumstances," meant that the screening process has to be based upon both "legal rules and Christian ethics."
"One cannot be accused without evidence," Pieronek said. "There must be competent bodies … one must have the right of defense." He said the pope "brings all these things to our minds."
Asked about the relationship between John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Navaro-Valls said it was "delicious" to watch discussions between the two men, who enjoyed an "identity of views" but "very different approaches and very different mentalities." Yet, he said, when it came time to make a decision, they "always converged."
Navarro-Valls described watching then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger visit the room of John Paul on Friday, April 1, as the pope lay dying. Ratzinger knelt before the pope, he said, and took his hand.
"I'm so grateful for what I learned from you over these years," Navarro-Valls quoted Benedict as saying.
Navarro-Valls also insisted that Ratzinger had no expectation of being elected pope, pointing to the now-famous picture of Benedict XVI on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica shortly after his election, in which one can spot the sleeves of a black sweater he wore into the conclave.
"He was not dressed like a man who expected to be elected pope," Navarro-Valls said.
Navarro-Valls said that when Benedict arrived at the archbishop's residence in Krakow Friday night, he asked Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz to show him the rooms Karol Wojtyla had used as a young priest, then as cardinal, and finally when he returned to Krakow as pope.
Prior to the press conference, Navarro-Valls spoke briefly to NCR about two points.
First, he said, the pope's comments today at Kalwaria expressing hope that John Paul II could be elevated to "the glory of the altar" soon, a reference to beatification and canonization, should not be read as a policy announcement, but rather a personal desire.
Benedict will treat the case, he suggested, as John Paul did that of Mother Teresa -- waiving the five-year waiting period, but then allowing the normal process to take its course. The pope, Navaro-Valls said, is conscious of his "responsibility before history" to make sure the case is handled properly.
Second, Navarro-Valls said the pope's comments on Thursday about recrimination and not judging by the standards of the past were a reference to the current Polish debate over collaboration with the communists, and not, as some Italian commentators suggested, a "correction" of the various apologies issued by John Paul II over the course of his pontificate for errors of the church.
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Rome correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@natcath.org.]
May 27, 2006, National Catholic Reporter | 
