c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Pope John Paul II returned to his native Poland on Saturday, saying he came as a pilgrim”to fulfill the need of his own heart”and urging Poles to build”a civilization of love.” John Paul began what will be his longest trip as pope to his homeland in the symbolically important city of Gdansk, where on his first visit 20 years ago he helped spark the Solidarity trade union movement that brought the downfall of communism in Poland.”… it was here that the voice of conscience was heard in a particular way,”John Paul said in his arrival remarks at Rebiechowo Airport,”calling for respect for human dignity, especially of workers, a voice calling for freedom, justice and solidarity between people.”This cry of conscience roused from slumber rang out with such force as to make room for the yearned-for freedom, a freedom which has become and continues to be for us a great task and a challenge for today and the future,”he said.

Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to get a look at the aging and increasingly frail 79-year-old pontiff as he began his grueling 13-day visit that will be both nostalgic but also something of a summary of the themes that have marked his papacy.”Receive my greeting of love and peace, the greeting of a fellow Pole who comes among you to fulfill the need of his own heart and who brings the blessing of God who is love,”the pope said at the airport.

Indeed, during the long trip, John Paul will mix personal and public events, including a private meeting with Lech Walesa, a founder of the Solidarity movement and Poland’s first democratically elected president, and a visit to the graves of family members.

John Paul also took note of the economic development of Poland, calling it”great progress,”adding that he prayed the country’s”material development will increase at an equal rate with its spiritual development.”But it is expected the pontiff will also level some criticism at the consumerist mentality that has been fostered in the country during the transition from communism to capitalism, a mentality that has worried local church leaders.

President Aleksander Kwasnieski welcomed John Paul at the airport, calling him”the greatest moral authority of our time”and said without the pope’s support of the Solidarity movement”the historical breakthrough of the last decade would not have happened.” Kwasnieski also asked John Paul for help in molding national unity in a nation in which, as a result of free market reforms, economic disparities and poverty, are growing.”We count on Your Holiness that you will support us in this work,”the president said.”That you will suggest to us how to avoid mistakes, and indicate the paths leading to the future.” The pope appeared to take up that theme later in the day after traveling by his bullet-proof”popemobile”to his initial Mass, attended by more than a half-million faithful at a racetrack in the nearby resort town of Sopot.

Again, recalling his initial visit as pope to Gdansk, John Paul said he remembered hearing the cry,”`There is no freedom without solidarity.’ Today we need to say: `There is no solidarity without love.'”Indeed,”John Paul added,”there is no happiness, there is no future for the individual and the nation without love, without that love which forgives yet does not forget, which is sensitive to the misfortunes of others, which does not seek its own advantage but seeks the good of the other other person.”We are therefore called to build the future based on love of God and of neighbor, establishing the civilization of love,”he said.

DEA END RNS