NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II will visit 20 different towns during his June trip to Poland, according to the schedule for that trip, made public today by the Vatican.

      The Pope's eighth trip to his native country will also be his longest, lasting from June 5 to June 17. His tour will begin at Gdansk, on the Baltic, and end in Krakow with visits to the graves of his parents. Some noteworthy stops on his itinerary will be:

On June 7, in Torun, he will meet with Polish academic leaders and preside at the beatification of Father Stefan Wincenty Frelichowski, a priest who died at the Dachau concentration camp in 1945.

On June 8 he will celebrate the liturgy with Eastern-rite Catholics in Siedlce, near Warsaw, and take part in ecumenical ceremonies in Drohiczyn.

On June 11, in Warsaw, he will meet with the Polish president and parliament, and visit memorials dedicated to victims of World War II and of the Holocaust. He will end the day at a meeting of the synod of the Polish Church, in the Warsaw cathedral.

On June 13, again in Warsaw, he will beatify 108 martyrs of the Nazi Holocaust.

On June 14, he will celebrate a Mass marking the 1000th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Krakow.

On June 16, he will preside at the canonization of Sister Cunegonde Kinga.

      The Pope's previous pastoral visits to Poland took place in June 1979, June 1983, June 1987, June 1991, August 1991, May 1995, and June 1997.