First Visit of Benedict XVI To Poland

In the period 25-28 May 2006 Poland will host Pope Benedict XVI. A visit to our country is an homage paid by the incumbent Holy Father to John Paul II.

"I am happy to go to Poland," said the Pope in March in an interview for the Vatican Radio. The motto of the papal pilgrimage is: "Be strong in the Faith."

Benedict XVI will arrive in Poland on Thursday, May 25, and will visit the following cities: Warsaw, Częstochowa, Cracow, Wadowice, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, and Oświęcim. The visit in this last town, and in particular in the former concentration camp in Auschwitz, takes place at the express wish of the Holy Father. The Pope will depart from Poland in the evening of Sunday, May 28, from Cracow Balice Airport.

The venues that Benedict XVI will visit in particular towns are already chosen. A detailed timetable will be announced by the Holy See most likely around April 23.

In early April Poland was once more visited by the delegation of the Holy See headed by Dr. Alberto Gasbarri, who is responsible for preparations of the international journeys of the Holy Father. Together with representatives of the Polish Episcopate and the Polish Government, Dr. Alberto Gasbarri discussed a detailed itinerary of Benedict XVI’s visit to Poland. He also thanked the Polish side for – by his own admission – very good and dynamic preparations for the papal visit. He stressed that Benedict XVI himself attaches utmost importance to this pilgrimage, since this is the first foreign apostolic journey he has planned on his own initiative.

Direct preparatory work connected with Benedict XVI’s visit to Poland began in mid-December 2005. The Conference of the Polish Episcopate was the first to establish a special team for the purpose of the visit. The team is headed by bishop Piotr Libera, Secretary General of the Episcopate, with Fr. Lucjan Skolik as deputy head.

A similar governmental team headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ludwik Dorn was set up before Christmas. Deputy heads of the team are Władysław Stasiak, undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, and Zbigniew Derdziuk, secretary of state in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. Both teams have worked intensively from the very beginning and have already held a number of meetings. For many weeks now local ecclesial and secular teams for the papal pilgrimage have worked in all the cities to be visited by Benedict XVI.

The official logo of the visit features a red-and-white boat with a yellow sail hoisted on a mast of a cross, inscribed into a blue circle and surrounded with an inscription "Be strong in the Faith." It was designed by Jarosław Babikowski, a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. The colours red and white of the boat make a reference to the Polish national colours. The mast, bearing the shape of a cross which resembles John Paul II’s crosier, is indicative of Poland’s Christian roots. The yellow colour of the sail along with the white prow of the ship, in turn, invokes the papal colours.

Advanced preparations of the papal altars at which Benedict XVI will celebrate Holy Masses – in Warsaw in Piłsudski Square and in the Cracow Błonia Common – are in full swing.

The Press Centre of the Apostolic Visit of His Holiness Benedict XVI to Poland is organised jointly by the Catholic Information Agency (KAI) and the Polish Press Agency (PAP). The obligations of the Parties are set forth in an agreement between the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland on the one hand and PAP and KAI on the other.

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