John Paul II in Wadowice

As Pope John Paul II visited his hometown on 7 June 1979 during the first pilgrimage to the Homeland. "Do all that is in your power so as not to be ashamed of this Pope in the world," said John Paul II during the meeting with the town’s residents. He said the Holy Mass in this hometown and recalled the people and the places he was tied with during the first 18 years of his life. "Everyone knows the significance of the first years of life for the development of one’s personality and character, the years of childhood and then the years of youth (...) Therefore I wanted so much to come here to thank God together with you for all the good that I experienced here." The second meeting of the Pope with his hometown took place in June 1999. In the main square he recalled the years of childhood and adolescence. Inhabitants of Wadowice were amused by the story about the competition of eating cream cakes. Since then cream cakes from Wadowice have become the most famous dessert in Poland. "Here there was a café. After the final exam in high school we went there to buy cream cakes. I cannot believe we stomached all those cream cakes after the exams!," reminisced the Pope. He spoke about his relatives and friends, including the Jews that lived in the town before the war. "The house where I lived belonged to Mr. Chaim Bałamuth. I do not know what happened to him. He may have died. I known the trials and tribulations of the Jews of Wadowice. Many died in Ghettoes and then in camps, as a result of the extermination action of the Nazi government," he recalled. He also gave out a secret of his retentive memory. "One cannot mention and remember everything; I can still remember quite a lot. This is because I learned a lot in school. I learned Latin, I learned Greek. Do you know what this is? Something wonderful!Ł. In conclusion, the Pope proved himself to be right and showed his extraordinary talent by quoting a fragment of Sophocles’ Antigone, a play where he was cast as Haimon in the fifth grade of high school. The crowd of 160,000 sang a spontaneous song "Sto lat!" [May you love a hundred years!]. The Pope observed, "It is easier sung than done.Ł

im, KAI//mam