NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      WARSAW (CWNews.com) - Pope John Paul II will make his eighth visit home to Poland next year, according to a joint announcement by Polish bishops and the government this week.

      Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski, speaking at a Church-government committee meeting on Monday said the Holy Father will visit the country for 12 days next June and journey to 18 locations including Gdansk, Warsaw, and his hometown of Wadowice. "A detailed plan of the visit will be announced at the start of next year after John Paul II personally accepts it," said Wieslaw Walendziak, Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek's chief of staff and deputy chairman of the committee.

      Walendziak said the Pope insisted on including a visit to Warsaw's Umschlagplatz -- a railway ramp from which Nazi Germans deported Jews to the Auschwitz death camp during World War II -- and meetings with Polish legislative, judiciary and executive authorities in parliament.