NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      ROME, 6 (NE) According to a message recently made public in the city of Varsovia, capital of Poland, Pope John Paul II will pilgrim through 20 cities of his country of birth from the 5 to the 17 of June this year, in what will be his longer visit to his homeland. With this pilgrimage the Holy Father will have completed his visits to all of the Polish dioceses. According to Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski, of Gdansk, the Pope's pilgrimage will begin in the port of Gdansk and end in Krįkow, where the Holy Father will beatify more than a hundred Poles killed during Nazi occupation.

      After a visit to the Polish Parliament in Warsaw, where he will deliver a speech before the National Assembly and other civil authorities, the Pope will go, among other cities, to Lichen, where he will bless the biggest temple of the country, presently in construction; to Elk where he will address the members of the Lithuanian ethnic minority; and the towns of Silesia, Sosnowiec and Gliwice. Pope John Paul II will also visit his native town, Wadowice, and the northern cities of Elblag, Pelplin, Bydgoszcz and Torun, as well as the cities of Siedlce, Drohiczyn, Zamosc and Sandomierz. He will also pilgrim to the suburb of Radzymin, the city of Lowicz and the city of Stary Sacz.

      He is also expected to visit memorials dedicated to both the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the victims of the Soviet gulags, as well as presiding at the conclusion of a Polish bishops' synod, and beatifying 108 martyrs from World War II. Finally, his Polish hosts plan for the Pope to join in the celebrations marking the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the Wadowice diocese in which he was born and raised.