c. 1997 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ What timing. Just as Poland’s highest court overturned a law permitting abortion and leaving the issue unresolved, the country’s arguably strongest moral voice is poised to step into the breach.
Pope John Paul II will make his seventh and longest pilgrimage to his homeland beginning Saturday (May 31), a tour mixing religion with nostalgia _ and a little politics _ that will take him to 14 towns in 11 days, ending June 10.
The 77-year-old Pole will pray at the graves of his parents; mark the 600th anniversary of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he studied and taught; and celebrate the Eucharist at Krakow’s Wawel Cathedral, where he presided at his first Mass 50 years ago.
He will also attend to some important Roman Catholic housekeeping, such as addressing the 46th International Eucharist Conference in Wroclaw, meeting with top Polish Catholic officials and anointing two saints.
But much of his attention will be focused on the social and economic changes that have taken place in his country since the Berlin Wall crumbled and democratic freedoms took root.
The pope has repeatedly warned his countrymen not to abandon the moral compass of Catholicism in favor of rampant capitalism, which he asserts breeds material selfishness. He has said that while Poland has become richer economically, it has become poorer morally.”Today our homeland is facing many difficult social, economic and political problems,”the pope said in Skoczow two years ago.”The most important of all, however, remains the problem of a just moral order, which is the foundation of every individual’s life and the life of every society.” At the time of his remarks abortion was illegal, a ban that was instituted after the communists were booted from power. Many women were forced to travel abroad to have the procedure. Those who could not afford to travel, often had clandestine abortions, performed by wary doctors who could be jailed for doing the operation.
But the law was reversed in 1996 by the reformed communist government, which angered the pope and Poland’s bishops.”A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope,”the pope thundered in a speech in Poland last year.
The recent abortion ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal leaves the legalization of the procedure unresolved. The high court struck down legalized abortion, permitted until the 12th week or pregnancy, on the premise it violates the new constitutional protection of life.
But the law remains in effect for up to six months, during which time parliament could override the ruling with a two-thirds majority vote, or alter the law to meet the court’s demands. It could possibly narrow circumstances under which abortion would be legal, such as to protect the health of the mother or in the case of rape or incest.
Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz is unlikely to muster the votes necessary for an override and may look to general elections in September to try to build on his majority.
Some analysts say a national referendum on the legalization of abortion may be the only way to resolve the highly charged issue.
Nevertheless, conservative politicians and church leaders hailed the ruling and called it a welcome gift on the eve of the pontiff’s visit.
There is little doubt the leader of the Roman Catholic Church will argue frequently and forcefully that his countrymen should once and for all outlaw a procedure that not long ago was the principal form of birth control.
But like much else in the fledgling democracy that is embracing NATO membership and imported consumer items at a dizzying pace, choice _ not restriction _ is the watchword of the day. In fact, Poles are nearly evenly split 50-50 on the question of legal abortion.”In many ways Poland now is more like Germany and Spain than some of the eastern countries that were under Soviet domination,”said Monsignor Marian Rola, rector of the Polish Pontifical College in Rome.”It’s facing many of the same questions and problems that developed countries have.” Coincidentally, John Paul recently found himself battling with Germany’s bishops over whether they may properly counsel women who seek abortion, as many think they should. The Vatican opposes clergy involvement in a process it deems anti-Catholic.
The pope’s trip to Poland will not be entirely confrontational. In many respects it will give the ailing leader what will surely be among his final walks among old friends and across familiar places that formed his thinking and for which he has fond memories.
He will spend three days in Krakow, where he became a priest 50 years ago and subsequently bishop and cardinal. The pope will travel to nearby Czestochowa, to pray at the icon of Mary, Poland’s most enduring religious and national symbol. And he will celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of missionary St. Adalbert of Gnienzo.
The pope will also canonize two Poles who have been beatified _ the 14th-century Queen of Poland, Hedwig, who brought the Slavonic Carmelite and Benedictine orders to Poland, and Jan of Dukla, the 15th-century priest of the Franciscan order who converted many Orthodox and Armenian Christians to the Roman Church.
On his final day in Poland, June 10, the pope is to deliver the benediction at the new Church of Saint Peter and Saint Jan of Dukla, now Krosno, a small town east of Krakow.
MJP END HEILBRONNER
