John Paul II and the Fall of Communism in Poland

On October 16, 1978, the cardinals elected Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyła as pope. For the authorities of the Polish People's Republic, it was a shock; for millions of Poles, a reason for joy and hope. A few months later, during his first pilgrimage to his homeland, John Paul II called out in Victory Square in Warsaw for the Holy Spirit to renew the "face of the earth. This earth!" A year later, strikes broke out, leading to the formation of Solidarity.

In this guide, we describe how the authorities of the Polish People's Republic and the Kremlin reacted to the election of a Pole, how the 1979 pilgrimage unfolded and how historians assess its impact, how the pope reacted to the August 1980 events, the assassination attempt on his life, and martial law, the significance of the pilgrimages in 1983 and 1987, how relations between the Vatican and Washington and Moscow looked, and what is actually known about the alleged "holy alliance" with Ronald Reagan. We also discuss the year 1989 and how John Paul II's role is assessed today, including disputes from recent years. Where sources differ or something could not be confirmed, we state this directly. We discuss Solidarity and martial law in separate guides.

A Pole as Pope – October 16, 1978

On Monday, October 16, 1978, on the third day of the conclave, white smoke appeared over the Sistine Chapel. It was a few minutes past 6:00 PM Roman time (sources report 6:18 or 6:19). About half an hour later, Cardinal Protodeacon Pericle Felici came out onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to announce the name of the new pope. Before doing so, he confirmed with the primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, how to correctly pronounce the Polish name. The fifty-eight-year-old Archbishop of Kraków took the name John Paul II.

This was the first pope from outside Italy in 455 years and the youngest since Pius IX, who was elected in 1846. The conclave consisted of 111 cardinal electors, and Wojtyła was elected in the eighth ballot. The often-repeated number of 99 votes comes from the contemporary Italian press. The voting is secret, so this number cannot be confirmed in official documents.

Who Supported Wojtyła

According to available studies, a significant role in building support for the Kraków metropolitan was played by Cardinal Franz König, the Archbishop of Vienna, who presented him to other electors as a compromise candidate. The majority of American cardinals also supported Wojtyła, among them Cardinal John Król of Philadelphia stood out. However, we only know the course of the conclave from leaks and later accounts, as participants are bound by secrecy.

On October 22, 1978, during the mass inaugurating his pontificate, a call was made in Italian that would return to Poland many times. In Polish, it translates to: "Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ." At the same ceremony, there was a gesture that Poles remembered for a long time. When Cardinal Wyszyński approached to pay homage and kiss the ring, the pope, as described in Polish accounts, rose from his throne, kissed his hand, and embraced him tightly.

Joy in the Country, Consternation in the Offices

In Poland, the news caused an explosion of joy. Historian Mirosław Szumiło, relying on accounts from the era, describes that in Kraków, people took to the streets, there were parades and songs, and the Zygmunt bell rang at Wawel.

Much less is known about the initial reaction of the authorities of the Polish People's Republic. Edward Gierek later recalled that the news was conveyed to him by telephone by the secretary of the Central Committee, Stanisław Kania, and he told his wife: "A Pole has become pope. This is a great event for the Polish nation and significant complications for us." However, Szumiło notes that Gierek's memories should be read with considerable skepticism, as the former secretary had a tendency to confabulate. What is certain, however, is that on October 16, a meeting of the Political Bureau was convened, and the official line was that the election of a Pole would strengthen the authority of socialist Poland in the world. A congratulatory telegram was sent to the Vatican, signed by Gierek, Chairman of the Council of State Henryk Jabłoński, and Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz.

Professor Jerzy Eisler describes Wojtyła's election as a "huge shock" for the authorities of the Polish People's Republic and cites several details from that evening. The television "Dziennik" on October 16 started with a few minutes delay. Eisler recalls that his first thought was war: "if the Dziennik Telewizyjny is delayed by 4 minutes, then it's war." He also recounts an anecdote recorded in accounts from that day, that a member of the Political Bureau, Stefan Olszowski, spilled coffee on himself out of shock. In another source, we could not confirm this. Better documented is the decision made by the authorities a few days later: Polish Television broadcast the mass inaugurating the pontificate. According to Eisler, this was the first mass in the 25-year history of Polish Television.

What Was Thought in the Kremlin

Publicly, Moscow maintained a diplomatic tone. Leonid Brezhnev sent a telegram to the new pope with wishes for "fruitful activity in the interest of international détente, friendship, and peace among nations." Behind the scenes, the assessments were quite different. Szumiło, a historian from UMCS and IPN, describes them in an article from 2024.

• The Soviet ambassador in Warsaw, Boris Aristov, reported to Moscow that the Polish authorities considered the new pope to be a "venomous anti-communist." This information comes from the Mitrokhin Archive, which contains notes from a KGB archivist taken to the West.
• KGB chief Yuri Andropov ordered an analysis of the circumstances of the election to be prepared. According to the description of this report, its authors concluded that Wojtyła was elected as a result of a German-American conspiracy, in which Cardinal John Król of Philadelphia and Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, played a major role. The goal of the conspiracy was said to be to incite a revolt in Poland. There is no evidence that such a conspiracy existed. This was an assessment of the KGB, not a fact. Szumiło describes this report based on an article by British researcher Felix Corley from 1991, not from the published original.

On March 14, 1979, during Gierek's talks in Moscow, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, who had previously spoken with the pope, summarized his impressions with the words that on the papal throne sits a man "forged on four legs," "our common dangerous ideological and political opponent." This record was published by Andrzej Friszke and Marcin Zaremba in a volume of documents from the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On November 5, 1978, in Assisi, someone from the crowd shouted to the pope: "Do not forget about the Church of Silence." He replied: "There is no longer a Church of Silence, for it speaks with my voice."

The Cardinal Whom the Authorities Undervalued

Karol Wojtyła's relations with the authorities of the Polish People's Republic began long before the conclave and were not simple. In November 1963, the Administrative Department of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party rejected three candidacies for the Archbishop of Kraków presented by Primate Wyszyński, including Wojtyła's candidacy. However, on December 19, Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz did not raise any objections to Wojtyła, and on December 30, 1963, he was appointed Metropolitan of Kraków.

A good example of these relations is Nowa Huta. In the plans for the socialist city being built near Kraków, no church was foreseen at all. When in 1959 the authorities revoked permission for the construction of a temple and decided to build a school in its place, the then-bishop Wojtyła replied on April 22, 1960, that the cross standing there had become an object of worship and its removal would be an offense to the feelings of the faithful. Five days later, on April 27, 1960, the attempt to remove the cross from the Theater Estate sparked all-day riots involving thousands of people. According to police data, about 500 people were arrested, and 87 were sentenced to prison. The issue of fatalities remains disputed: reliable data is lacking, although eyewitness accounts suggest that there were some.

The authorities ultimately agreed to build a church in another location, in Bieńczyce. On May 18, 1969, Cardinal Wojtyła laid the cornerstone there, brought from St. Peter's Basilica and consecrated by Paul VI. The Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland, known as the Ark of the Lord, built from 1967 to 1977 at the initiative of Father Józef Gorzelany, was consecrated by Wojtyła on May 15, 1977. Interestingly, a stone was placed in the tabernacle, which, according to tradition, was said to be a fragment of the Moon brought back by the Apollo 11 crew and given to the cardinal by Paul VI. According to macroscopic examinations described by Jacek Rajchel in the book "Kamienny Kraków" (2005), it is, however, an aggregate of pyrite crystals, so its cosmic origin is highly questionable. The Vatican only confirmed that Cardinal Wojtyła received such a stone.

The File on Wojtyła

Throughout this time, Wojtyła was under surveillance by the security services. The IPN has collected documents on this topic, including in the volume "Towards Truth and Freedom. The Communist Security Services towards Cardinal Karol Wojtyła," which contains about 200 documents from the UB and SB from 1946 to 1978. According to the IPN, the earliest traces of the security services' interest in Wojtyła likely date back to 1946, when he was still a cleric. The SB wanted to know everything: what his daily schedule was, whom he met, where he traveled, what he spoke about in sermons, what his habits were, who managed his household, and what he read.

In a note from December 18, 1972, the then-head of Department IV of the Kraków SB, which dealt with the Church, conveyed a report overheard from the Archbishop of Poznań, Antoni Baraniak. Baraniak reportedly said after returning from Rome that if a conclave were to be held at that moment, "the most serious candidate would be Karol Wojtyła." Nevertheless, as co-editor of the volume Filip Musiał emphasizes, "the highest party bodies were extremely surprised by this choice." According to Marek Lasota, director of the Kraków branch of the IPN, Wojtyła "knew he was being monitored, but he was above that." After the conclave, materials from the Polish Department IV of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were used by the KGB to prepare a secret profile of the new pope for the capitals of the Eastern bloc.

What the Authorities Feared

The authorities of the Polish People's Republic anticipated that a pope from Poland could awaken the freedom aspirations of their compatriots. In a report prepared for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on November 4, 1978, it was expected that there would be increasing pressure from the Vatican for religious freedom throughout the bloc. In a profile prepared for Czechoslovak leader Gustáv Husák, it was emphasized that Wojtyła was particularly interested in youth education and sharply criticized atheization in schools. Already the day after the conclave, the Polish Episcopate's communiqué included an invitation for the pope to the country for the celebrations of the 900th anniversary of the death of the Kraków bishop St. Stanislaus. Szumiło calls this putting the authorities before a fait accompli. The martyrdom of this bishop, killed in the 11th century at the behest of King Bolesław the Bold, was a symbol of resistance to abuses of power for Polish Catholics. The authorities did not want the pope to come precisely for this anniversary.

Pilgrimage 1979: "Let Your Spirit Descend"

Negotiations lasted for months. The episcopate and the pope wanted the visit to take place in May 1979, on the anniversary of St. Stanislaus's death. The government proposed postponing the visit until 1982, which would mark the 600th anniversary of Jasna Góra. A joint commission of the state and the Church met for the first time on February 14, 1979. At the beginning of March, a June date and a nine-day itinerary were established. The authorities managed to block the visit in May, but they could not impose their own theme for the pilgrimage, which was to commemorate the victims of war and deliver a message of peace.

Brezhnev: Let the pope announce that he is ill

Moscow was very reluctant to accept this visit. According to accounts cited by historians and journalists, whose original sources we could not verify, Brezhnev advised that the pope should announce an illness preventing his arrival. When Gierek did not yield, he reportedly received a warning that varies slightly in different sources, for example: "Do as you see fit, but make sure you and your party do not regret it later." We did not find a record of this exchange in published documents, so its course and wording cannot be confirmed.

A better-documented conversation took place on March 13, 1979, in Moscow. According to a record published by Friszkiego and Zaremba, Gierek explained to Brezhnev that the pope is a "citizen of the People's Republic of Poland" and it would be difficult to deny him the right to visit his homeland. A refusal could provoke a sharp conflict with Catholics in the country, and also, as he said, "with the strong pressure from people of Polish descent living abroad." This is an interesting indication that the authorities of the Polish People's Republic also considered the reaction of the Polish diaspora.

Nine days that changed Poland

The first apostolic journey of John Paul II to his homeland took place from June 2 to June 10, 1979, under the motto "Gaude Mater Polonia." The itinerary was as follows:

The authorities denied permission for visits to Piekary Śląskie and Wrocław. The plane with the pope landed at Okęcie on Saturday, June 2, at 10:07 AM. In the afternoon, after meeting with Edward Gierek at the Belvedere, the pope arrived in an open car at Victory Square, now Piłsudski Square, where he celebrated mass at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

"This land"

Szumiło writes that in the homilies of this pilgrimage, the pope avoided open criticism of the regime but conveyed "a positive interpretation of the nation's history, rooted in Christian values." The conclusion of the homily at Victory Square went down in history:

"I call out, I, a son of Polish soil, and at the same time I, John Paul II, the pope. I call out from the depths of this Millennium, I call out on the eve of the Feast of Pentecost, I call out together with all of you: Let Your Spirit descend! Let Your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth. This land!"

The pope spoke in Polish, and the Holy See publishes this homily only in translations, which is why Polish records differ slightly in punctuation. The words about renewing the face of the earth come from Psalm 104, and the pope added "this land," meaning Poland. In many studies, these sentences are referred to as one of the first slogans of the "Solidarity" movement that emerged a year later, but we have not found any documents from that era to confirm this.

The authorities of the Polish People's Republic recognized the political dimension of these words from the beginning. In the preliminary assessment of the pilgrimage prepared by the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, the most harmful statements were identified as those regarding the role of the Church in the history of Poland, in which the party saw "a kind of absolutization of the Church's influence" on the emergence and survival of the state.

How many people saw the pope

No one counted the participants of this pilgrimage in a credible way, and all numbers are estimates. According to an estimate cited by PAP, about 10 million Poles participated in meetings with John Paul II during these nine days. Interestingly, the party's summary noted with satisfaction a turnout lower than expected and attributed it to the merits of its own propaganda. In contrast, the Ministry of Internal Affairs report pointed out something that concerned the authorities much more: over half of the participants in the meetings were young people.

The authorities did a lot to keep the crowds as small as possible. According to historians' findings, the rental of buses and trains was made difficult, and the SB intercepted and destroyed entry cards for masses in Warsaw and Kraków. In Kraków alone, 480 secret collaborators were involved in "securing" the visit, including at least several dozen clergy.

How it was shown on television

The American weekly "Time" described in July 1979 a ten-page draft instruction from the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party regarding the coverage of the visit, smuggled from Poland. According to this document, texts, even in church publications, were to be checked by two five-person teams of censors, and party newspapers were not to publish any photographs. The project did not contain directives for television, but according to "Time," one of the operators admitted that there was a ban on showing large crowds. Once, the camera followed the pope's helicopter for several minutes, so as not to show people on the ground.

Later accounts repeat that operators were to show older people, nuns, and priests up close instead of young people. We could not confirm this in a source document, so we present it as a report.

Banner in Gniezno and Slovaks in Nowy Targ

The pilgrimage was not solely a Polish event. In his homily on Lech Hill in Gniezno, the pope spoke about the Christian roots of Slavic nations, about the baptism of Rus and Lithuania, about Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, and Bulgarians. In the crowd, he saw a banner reading "Pamatuj Otče na své české děti," meaning "Remember, Father, your Czech children," and he deviated from the prepared text to assure the Czechs of his remembrance. The Czechoslovak security service drastically limited the sale of Polish currency to prevent Slovaks from traveling to Nowy Targ. Nevertheless, several thousand Slovaks made it to the mass on June 8.

On November 13, 1979, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union adopted guidelines for actions against the Vatican's policy towards socialist countries, which Szumiło describes as an informal declaration of war against John Paul II.

What the pilgrimage did to people

Historians agree on the direction of the impact, although they differ in emphasis. Szumiło writes that almost all researchers consider the first pilgrimage a catalyst for changes in consciousness that led to the emergence of "Solidarity." In his view, the most important aspect was the reduction of the collective sense of fear. The pilgrimage was, according to him, "a practical school of organizational action," and people realized that in the Polish People's Republic, it was possible to publicly proclaim values that communism had fought against for decades. Historian Jan Żaryn summed it up succinctly: "When the pope arrived on June 2, 1979, he ruled Poland for a week." George Weigel called the visit "nine days that changed the world," referencing John Reed's book about the October Revolution.

Even Edward Gierek noticed the change, admitting years later that there was a "clear polarization of opinions" in the country.

From June 1979 to August 1980

Fourteen months after the pilgrimage, strikes broke out on the Coast. Their immediate causes were economic and labor-related, which we discuss in more detail in the guide on "Solidarity." The connection to the pilgrimage is thus an interpretation by historians, not a simple cause-and-effect relationship. However, this interpretation is very widespread on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

British historian Timothy Garton Ash, who observed these events closely, summarized it in three steps: without the Polish pope, there would be no "Solidarity" revolution in 1980; without "Solidarity," there would be no radical change in Moscow's policy towards Eastern Europe under Gorbachev; and without that change, there would be no Velvet Revolutions of 1989. He himself cautioned that no one can ultimately prove this. Interestingly, the communists themselves saw it similarly. In January 1981, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote that the emergence of "Solidarity" was "the result of long-term conscious activity of the Catholic Church" and the impulse provided by the election of a Pole as pope and his visit to the country. These documents show how the communists viewed it, but they are not evidence that the Vatican directed "Solidarity."

The Pope, August, and the Assassination

On August 14, 1980, the Gdańsk Shipyard went on strike. On August 20, during the general audience, the pope addressed his compatriots in Polish and, in light of the news coming from Poland, recited two prayers of the Church in Poland: from the Feast of the Queen of Poland on May 3 and from the Feast of Our Lady of Częstochowa on August 26. The first of these asks for religion to enjoy freedom and the homeland security. He did not mention the strikes directly.

On the same day, he wrote a short letter to Primate Wyszyński, published today on the Vatican's website. In it, he stated that he prays that the episcopate, led by the primate, can "assist this Nation in its difficult struggle for daily bread, for social justice, and for the safeguarding of its inviolable rights to its own life and development." The letter does not explicitly mention the strikes, but it speaks of bread, social justice, and the inviolable rights of the nation.

On January 15, 1981, John Paul II received Lech Wałęsa and a delegation from the NSZZ "Solidarity" in the Vatican. He then stated that the initiative that arose in the August weeks on the Coast was based on "some collective surge to raise the morality of society."

Letter to Brezhnev

By the end of 1980, the situation in Poland was very tense. According to the chronology of the pontificate published by PAP, on December 16, 1980, the pope sent a letter to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev. In it, he wrote that the events of the past months in Poland "were triggered by the inevitable necessity of the economic reconstruction of the country, which simultaneously requires a moral reconstruction based on the conscious engagement, in the spirit of solidarity, of all forces of society." He addressed Brezhnev: "I trust that you will do everything in your power to alleviate the current tension."

The letter is noted in the PAP chronology, but the quoted fragment is a Polish translation, and we have not found the full original text in the papal documents made available by the Holy See. It is also unclear what impact the letter had on the Kremlin's decisions.

May 13, 1981, St. Peter's Square

On Wednesday, May 13, 1981, during the general audience, the pope was driving around St. Peter's Square in an open car. Around 5:17–5:19 PM, as sources report different minutes, the Turk Mehmet Ali Ağca fired shots from a 9 mm Browning pistol. Sources also differ in their description of the injuries: some mention two bullets that hit the pope in the abdomen and in the finger of his left hand, while others mention three hits. They all agree that the bullet passed through the abdominal cavity. Two American women were also injured: Ann Odre from Buffalo, hit in the chest, and Rose Hall from Massachusetts, who was lightly injured.

The assailant was subdued by the head of Vatican security, Camillo Cibin, a nun, and several pilgrims. The pope was transported to the Gemelli Clinic. Due to massive blood loss, his blood pressure dropped sharply, and he received the sacrament of anointing of the sick. It is suspected that during the blood transfusion, he contracted the cytomegalovirus, which prolonged his recovery. By May 17, the pope requested from the clinic that prayers be offered for his "brother," whom he "sincerely forgave." The faithful quickly noticed that the assassination occurred on May 13, the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima in 1917.

Ağca had a history as a terrorist. Associated with the far-right Turkish organization Grey Wolves, he murdered journalist Abdi İpekçi in Istanbul in 1979, the editor of the newspaper "Milliyet." In July 1981, an Italian court sentenced him to life imprisonment. In 1983, the pope visited him in the Rebibbia prison in Rome and spoke with him privately. In 2000, at the pope's request, the President of Italy pardoned Ağca, who was sent to a prison in Turkey and was released in 2010.

Who was behind Ağca

This is the most contentious aspect of this story and must be described honestly: to this day, there is no valid verdict indicating the instigator. Ağca himself provided dozens of contradictory versions during the investigation. Prosecutor Antonio Marini stated that the assassin "manipulated us all."

• "Bulgarian trail." After Ağca's arrest, he testified that he had been to Sofia before the assassination and collaborated with Bulgarians. Based on his testimony, Sergey Antonov, an employee of Bulgarian Airlines in Rome, was arrested. Two Bulgarian diplomats, Zhelyu Vasiliev and Todor Ayvazov, who had previously left Italy, were also accused. After a lengthy trial, Antonov was acquitted in 1986 due to lack of evidence, and the two diplomats were also acquitted.
• Doubts about this thesis. Critics, including Edward Herman, considered the "Bulgarian trail" to be Western disinformation, as Ağca only began to speak about Bulgarians after visits from the Italian intelligence. In 1991, former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman testified before a U.S. Senate committee that a CIA report from 1985, indicating Soviet involvement, was prepared with a predetermined thesis and that the agency had no evidence.
• IPN investigation. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance conducted its own investigation from 2006 to 2014, as the victim of the assassination was a Polish citizen. Prosecutor Michał Skwara collected 220 volumes of files, using materials from Italian, Bulgarian, German, and Turkish sources. According to the IPN, Ağca was assisted by Bulgarian security officers and people from the Turkish underworld, and Antonov, according to Bulgarian documents, was a secret collaborator of the intelligence. At the same time, the IPN admitted that there is no evidence of who was behind the Bulgarians, "although much indicates Soviet inspiration." Prosecutor Ewa Koj from the Katowice IPN stated that the Soviet services "at least incited disinformation actions."
• Disinformation. After the assassination, the Bulgarians fabricated a supposed letter from Ağca to the leader of the Turkish nationalists, and the East German Stasi conducted an operation from August 1982 to divert attention from the Bulgarian thread.
• Mitrokhin Commission. In March 2006, an Italian parliamentary commission led by Senator Paolo Guzzanti from Silvio Berlusconi's party claimed that it was the leaders of the USSR who decided to eliminate the pope due to his support for "Solidarity" and passed the order to military intelligence services, not the KGB. However, the commission was heavily politicized, and its important informant, Maria Scaramella, was arrested in late 2006 on charges of defamation, among others. Russia and Bulgaria condemned its report.

John Paul II himself, in his last book "Memory and Identity" from 2005, wrote that he is convinced that the assassination was not Ağca's initiative and that "someone else" planned and commissioned it. However, he did not indicate who. IPN historian Mirosław Szumiło believes that the decision to attack was made at the highest levels of Soviet power, but this is his interpretation, which has not been confirmed by any court or document from the Kremlin archives. Therefore, it must be stated honestly: the involvement of Bulgarian services is well documented according to the Polish investigation, the Soviet instigator is considered probable by some historians, but unproven.

Death of the Primate of the Millennium

While the pope was recovering in the Gemelli Clinic, a man who had been the Primate of Poland since 1948 was dying in Warsaw. Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was diagnosed with cancer in mid-March 1981. On May 16, while receiving the sacrament of anointing of the sick, he spoke by the bedside about the assassination of the pope. He died on May 28, 1981, at 4:40 AM.

On the same day, the Joint Commission of the Government and the Episcopate announced a national mourning from May 28 to May 31. The pope, who was himself recovering from surgery, sent a condolence message and celebrated a mass for the deceased in his hospital room. He could not attend the funeral on May 31. At Victory Square, the same place where two years earlier the words about the renewal of "this land" were spoken, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski read John Paul II's homily. Among the foreign guests were American Cardinals John Krol from Philadelphia and John Cody from Chicago. An interesting fact from the other side of the barricade: as biographers describe, Wyszyński was under continuous observation by the UB and SB from May 1946 until the day of his funeral, and in the questionnaire of the case codenamed "Prophet," his occupation was simply listed as "Primate."

December 13, 1981: "Polish blood cannot be shed"

The news of the introduction of martial law reached the Vatican on December 13, 1981. Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz recalled in his book "Testimony" that it was a "real shock." Connections with Poland were severed. According to reports from those around him, the pope even considered traveling to the country but quickly deemed it impossible.

On Sunday, December 13, after the Angelus prayer at St. Peter's Square, he addressed Polish pilgrims. He said that the events of the last hours prompted him to once again ask everyone to pray for the homeland, and then added according to the Polish record cited by PAP: "I remind you of what I said in September: Polish blood cannot be shed, for too much of it has been spilled, especially during the last war. Everything must be done to build the future of the homeland in peace." The Holy See publishes these words only in the Italian translation, which explicitly mentions the Second World War. At the end, the pope entrusted Poland to Our Lady of Częstochowa.

On December 16, during the general audience, he spoke very clearly: difficult matters cannot be resolved "by using violence," and "the strength and seriousness of power is expressed in such dialogue, not in the use of violence."

On December 18, John Paul II sent a letter to General Wojciech Jaruzelski. The pope wrote: "I therefore turn to you, General, with a strong request and at the same time a heartfelt appeal, that matters related to the renewal of society, which since August 1980 have been dealt with through peaceful dialogue, return to that same path. Even if it is difficult, it is not impossible." On Christmas Eve 1981, the pope lit a candle in the window of the Apostolic Palace as a sign of solidarity with the nations that suffered that year. We discuss the course of martial law, internments, and victims in more detail in a separate guide.

Pilgrimages 1983 and 1987

The second visit of John Paul II to his homeland was supposed to take place in 1982, to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the presence of the image of Our Lady at Jasna Góra. The introduction of martial law and prolonged negotiations with the authorities meant that the pope arrived only a year later. According to a study by the Institute of National Remembrance, a key meeting took place between Archbishop Józef Glemp and Wojciech Jaruzelski on November 8, 1982, during which a preliminary date and the most important conditions for the visit were agreed upon. Subsequently, a tedious struggle for each city took place in the Joint Commission of the Government and the Episcopate. Szczecin, Piekary Śląskie, Olsztyn, Łódź, and Lublin were removed from the itinerary. The authorities even questioned individual points of the program, which we discuss in the curiosities section.

June 1983: "Peace to You, Poland"

The pope landed at Okęcie on June 16, 1983. Martial law was then suspended but not lifted. The pilgrimage lasted until June 23 and went through Warsaw, Niepokalanów, Częstochowa, Poznań, Katowice, Wrocław, Góra Świętej Anny, and Kraków. Its motto was the words "Peace to You, Poland! My Homeland!" According to the IPN, about 7 million people participated in the meetings with the pope, the most in the Kraków Błonia – nearly 2.5 million. It is worth noting that the figure of 7 million comes from reports of the Security Service, and such crowd estimates are always approximate.

On the very first evening, in a homily at the Warsaw Cathedral, the pope said a sentence that undermined the propaganda thesis of "normalization": "Together with all my compatriots, especially those who feel the bitterness of disappointment, humiliation, suffering, deprivation of freedom, injustice, and trampled human dignity, I stand before the cross." For those who remembered internments, dismissals from work, and pacifications, no further explanation was needed.

Belweder and Wawel: Two Conversations with Jaruzelski

According to the IPN, the pope met with representatives of the authorities five times during this pilgrimage. The most important meeting took place on June 17 at Belweder, with the participation of General Jaruzelski. John Paul II reminded him of the August agreements, although he did not use the word "Solidarity": "And although life in the Homeland since December 13, 1981, has been subjected to the strict rigors of martial law, which has been suspended since the beginning of this year – I still do not cease to trust that the long-promised social renewal according to the principles developed with such difficulty in the breakthrough days of August 1980 and contained in the agreements will gradually come to fruition."

The last note of the visit was a conversation that was not on the agenda. According to the IPN, it took place at Wawel on June 23, the day of departure to Rome, at the pope's request. IPN historian Grzegorz Majchrzak, writing for the dzieje.pl portal, also points to the pope's initiative and the last day of the pilgrimage. The course of this conversation is not known. The IPN cautiously writes that "various fragmentary pieces of information suggest" that it was stormy, and the pope urged the First Secretary of the KC PZPR to cease repression and engage in talks with the leaders of "Solidarity." This is an indirect conclusion, not a record of the conversation. In some studies, the meeting is dated to June 22, and the initiative is attributed to the government side, so the date and initiative remain disputed.

Jasna Góra and the Accusation of "Calling for Rebellion"

The sharpest reaction from the authorities was provoked by the evening Jasna Góra Appeal with the youth on June 18. The pope said then: "My young friends! Before our common Mother and Queen of hearts, I want to tell you in the end that I know about your sufferings, your difficult youth, your sense of injustice and humiliation, about the often felt lack of prospects for the future – perhaps about the temptations to escape to some other world."

Deputy Prime Minister Mieczysław Rakowski noted in his diary that when he called Jaruzelski late in the evening, he was "clearly worried and furious." On the morning of June 19, Adam Łopatka read the government's statement to Cardinal Franciszek Macharski and Archbishop Bronisław Dąbrowski. It contained the words: "We treat the content of the homily to the youth as a call to rebellion and religious war" and a threat: "The authorities proved on December 13, 1981, that they are capable of effectively opposing any attempts to destabilize the system and the state." The government reserved the right to make corrections to the visit program, especially in radio and television broadcasts. The Episcopate rejected these accusations on the same day, stating that the pope's statements were "extremely cautious and measured."

How the pope himself reacted is reported differently by sources. According to the findings of the SB, he complained that "he was alone in writing the texts." His then-secretary, Father Stanisław Dziwisz, recalled years later something completely different. According to him, John Paul II responded to the pressures: "If I cannot speak in my country about what I have prepared, I will return to Rome." Both accounts are one-sided and cannot be resolved today. The fact is that the program was not changed, and already on June 20 at Muchowiec Airport in Katowice, the pope spoke about the right of workers to associate in independent unions. A few months after the delegalization of "Solidarity," no one had any doubts about which union was being referred to.

Refuge at Chochołowska Clearing, June 23, 1983

For months, the most difficult point of negotiations was the meeting with Lech Wałęsa. According to the IPN, Jaruzelski repeatedly tried to convince Primate Glemp to persuade the chairman of the illegal union to resign from the conversation. The Primate essentially agreed, but neither the pope nor most bishops intended to back down. Cardinal Macharski was said to have remarked: "Let us not discuss whether we should suggest to the Holy Father or not. If the Holy Father did not receive him, he would lose credibility even for himself."

The meeting took place on June 23, on the way from Kraków to the airport in Balice, at the refuge at Chochołowska Clearing in the Western Tatras. Officially, the pope was resting in the mountains and walking in the Jarząbcza Valley. Shepherd Jędrzej Zięba-Gał, who hosted the pope in his shepherd's hut, recalled in 2014 on RMF FM: "The entire Chochołowska Valley was surrounded." As the radio reporter added, officially it was to ensure that no one disturbed the pope, and the meeting at the refuge was prepared in secret. These details are based on the account of a single witness. The American newspaper "Christian Science Monitor" reported the next day that Wałęsa was accompanied by his wife Danuta and four of their children, and representatives of the Church and the government refused to provide details. The content of the conversation was not disclosed. Today, a plaque commemorating the pope's visit hangs at the entrance to the refuge, and inside there is an exhibition dedicated to the meeting with Wałęsa.

Shortly thereafter, a scandal erupted that showed how easy it was to misinterpret things at that time. The deputy editor of the Vatican newspaper "L’Osservatore Romano," Father Virgilio Levi, published a commentary the day after the pope's return to Rome, in which he wrote that Wałęsa "lost his battle" and was stepping off the stage. Part of the world interpreted this as a signal that the Vatican was "sacrificing" Wałęsa in exchange for concessions from the authorities. Father Levi admitted that he expressed "his own, personal opinions," and the next day he resigned from his position. According to the "Christian Science Monitor," he was forced to do so, while other contemporary press reports stated that he resigned voluntarily. The same newspaper wrote that some observers in the Vatican saw the article as a sign of the curia's fears that the impatience of the Poles would harm the Church's dialogue with the state. Whether there was something more behind the text, known documents do not resolve.

June 1987: The Last Visit in the PRL

The third pilgrimage took place from June 8 to 14, 1987, under the motto "He Loved Them to the End." As it turned out, this was the last visit of the pope to People's Poland. The official reason was the II National Eucharistic Congress in Warsaw and the beatifications of Karolina Kózkówna and Bishop Michał Kozal. The pope visited Warsaw, Lublin, Tarnów, Kraków, Szczecin, Gdynia, Gdańsk, Częstochowa, and Łódź. For the first time as pope, he came to the Tri-City, the cradle of "Solidarity."

On June 8 at the Royal Castle, the pope told representatives of the authorities: "If you want to maintain peace, remember about man. Remember about his rights, which are inalienable, because they stem from the very humanity of every human being."

Gdynia, Westerplatte, Zaspa: A Word That Was Forbidden

For years, the name of the illegal union could not be mentioned in official media. In June 1987, the pope publicly uttered it several times. On June 11 in Gdynia, at a mass for the people of the sea, he said: "How significant is the fact that it is precisely the word 'solidarity' that has been spoken here, by the Polish sea. That it has been spoken in a new way, which simultaneously confirms its eternal content." He added: "Here, by the Baltic Sea, I also pronounce this word." That same evening at 21:30 at the bishop's residence in Oliwa, he privately received Lech Wałęsa with his wife and eight children.

On the morning of June 12 at Westerplatte, he met with the youth. He recalled the defenders from September 1939 under the command of Major Henryk Sucharski, and then said words that became one of the most quoted fragments of his entire pontificate: "Each of you, young Friends, also finds in life some 'Westerplatte' of your own. Some dimension of tasks that must be undertaken and fulfilled. Some just cause for which one cannot fail to fight. Some obligation, duty, from which one cannot evade. One cannot 'desert.'"

On the same day at Gdańsk Zaspa, he celebrated a mass for the working world. He prayed earlier at the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers. In his homily, he spoke about the agreements of August 1980: "The 'Gdańsk Agreements' will remain in the history of Poland as an expression of this growing awareness of the working people regarding the entire social and moral order on Polish soil. They trace their origins back to the tragic December of 1970. And they remain a task to be fulfilled!" When he said, "The struggle cannot be stronger than solidarity," the crowd interrupted him with applause. The official text on the Vatican website retained the improvised interjection of the pope: "I just want to talk about this, so let the Pope speak, since he wants to talk about you, and also in a certain sense for you."

These words were also noted by the Ministry of Interior. In the preliminary assessment of the pilgrimage quoted by dzieje.pl, it was written: "While Primate Glemp seems to have already 'crossed out' it [Solidarity] (…), the pope still demonstrates a certain sentiment towards S[olidarity] and revives this thread. It is difficult to assess at this point whether this is a significant difference or a theatrical division of roles."

At the Grave of Father Jerzy

On June 14, 1987, the last day of the pilgrimage, the pope arrived at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Warsaw's Żoliborz. He prayed at the grave of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, murdered in 1984 by SB officers, and met with his family. The IPN points out that the prayer at this grave was one of the points that the authorities feared the most. On the same day at Defilad Square, he beatified Bishop Michał Kozal, and at Okęcie, he bid farewell with words about four rights: to truth, to freedom, to justice, and to love.

Vatican, Washington, and Moscow

The role of John Paul II in the fall of communism has two layers. The first is overt and well-documented: homilies, pilgrimages, meetings with leaders. The second involves diplomacy and alleged secret agreements. Here, it is particularly important to carefully separate what documents show from what is interpretation by journalists and historians.

Casaroli and Vatican "Ostpolitik"

Cardinal Agostino Casaroli was the architect of the Eastern policy of the Holy See since the 1960s, engaging in cautious discussions with communist governments to salvage what could be preserved in the Church: the ability to appoint bishops, parish activities, and the education of priests. John Paul II appointed him Secretary of State in 1979, and Casaroli held this position until 1990. According to George Weigel, it was Casaroli who negotiated the terms of the first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979.

The assessment of this policy remains divisive. Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, presenting his memoirs "The Martyrdom of Patience" in 2000, emphasized that John Paul II's election brought "newness of great importance" to relations with the East, including the personal experience of a shepherd who had known oppression. Conversely, American biographer George Weigel, in a commentary from February 2026, argues that the view that Ostpolitik was the key to the fall of communism in Europe is incorrect, attributing the decisive role to the pope himself and the spiritual resistance of the Church. Weigel criticized Ostpolitik as early as in his 1992 book. Silvestrini presented it differently: as a moral obligation undertaken by Paul VI, although dialogue with communist regimes was, as he said, "difficult, to say the least impossible." Both assessments are interpretations, not facts.

Reagan at the Vatican, June 7, 1982

Ronald Reagan and John Paul II met for the first time on June 7, 1982, at the Vatican. According to "Time" magazine, they spoke privately for about 50 minutes in the Vatican Library. Both had survived assassination attempts the previous year, Reagan in March and the pope in May 1981. The president's public speech after the meeting is available in the collections of the Reagan Presidential Library. Poland is mentioned as a "martyred nation" and the pope's "homeland." Reagan announced that the USA would continue to demand the lifting of martial law, the release of political prisoners, and the resumption of dialogue between the government, the Church, and "Solidarity," while the regime would not receive financial aid, although food and other supplies would reach Poles through church and private organizations.

A documented outcome of these relations was the establishment of diplomatic relations. According to the U.S. Department of State's Historian's Office, President Reagan and John Paul II agreed on this on January 10, 1984, and on April 9, 1984, William A. Wilson, the president's personal representative, presented his credentials as the first U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

"Holy Alliance": Thesis and Critique

On February 24, 1992, "Time" published an article by Carl Bernstein, co-author of the famous investigation into the Watergate scandal, titled "The Holy Alliance." Bernstein claimed that during the meeting on June 7, 1982, Reagan and the pope agreed on a "secret campaign" to accelerate the collapse of the communist empire. He wrote about smuggling faxes, printers, transmitters, and computers into Poland by priests, American agents, and AFL-CIO union members, about money from CIA funds, the National Endowment for Democracy, "secret Vatican accounts," and Western trade unions. He quoted Richard Allen, Reagan's first national security advisor, who called it "one of the great secret alliances of all time."

The thesis faced opposition from the start. George Weigel, in a review of Bernstein and Marco Politi's book "His Holiness" (1996), accused it of being "chronologically flawed," as "Solidarity" was formed in 1980, two years before the meeting with Reagan, following the pilgrimage of 1979. He also questioned whether the exchange of intelligence information constituted a "holy alliance" and recalled that "Solidarity" activists mocked this hypothesis when it emerged in 1992.

What do the documents and research we have access to show? American assistance for the underground "Solidarity" indeed existed. Seth G. Jones described in his book "A Covert Action" (2018) a CIA program codenamed QRHELPFUL. According to a review by "Kirkus Reviews," it cost less than $20 million from 1983 to 1989, and the aid was channeled through intermediaries so that the Poles themselves did not know its source. The reviewer assesses the role of the CIA as "important but secondary." However, we found no documents confirming a formal agreement between the pope and Reagan regarding a joint covert operation. Additionally, we found no confirmation in documents for claims about "secret Vatican accounts" financing the union. It must be stated honestly: a shared community of goals and intense contacts are documented, but the "holy alliance" in the sense of a secret pact is not.

The Pope and Gorbachev, December 1, 1989

On December 1, 1989, three weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev visited the Vatican. This was the first meeting between the head of the Soviet Communist Party and the pope. Previously, in 1967, Paul VI was visited in the Vatican by the formal head of the Soviet state, Nikolai Podgorny. The Russian transcript of the conversation from the state archives of the Russian Federation (the collection of Alexander Yakovlev) was published in English translation by the U.S. National Security Archive. It shows that in the first minutes they spoke privately, without interpreters. The pope requested a law on freedom of conscience and advocated for Eastern rite Catholics, who had been "practically outlawed" for over 40 years. Both agreed on an exchange of representatives between Moscow and the Holy See.

Gorbachev stated that the problems of Poland, the pope's homeland, were very close to him, and mentioned that he had recently spoken with Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He also invited the pope to the USSR. John Paul II replied that he would be happy to come and added a surprisingly personal remark: "I know Eastern Europe poorly. I am a Western Slavic person." He mentioned that he did not know Lviv and Vilnius, cities that were part of Poland before the war. The visit to Russia never took place.

The most frequently quoted statement by Gorbachev about the pope comes from his column for the Italian newspaper "La Stampa," reprinted on March 9, 1992, in the American press (the text is now in the archive of the "Tampa Bay Times"). In the translation from the English version, it reads: "Today it can be said that everything that has happened in Eastern Europe in recent years would have been impossible without the efforts of the pope and the enormous role, including political, that he played on the world stage." A shorter version circulating on the internet ("the fall of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II") is a paraphrase, not a direct quote.

President George W. Bush similarly assessed the pope when he presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 4, 2004. The justification stated about the "son of Poland," whose fundamental stance on peace and freedom helped "overthrow communism and tyranny." However, such statements by politicians do not resolve the question of how significant the pope was compared to other factors, such as the economic crisis of the bloc, Gorbachev's own policies, Western pressure, and Polish resistance. This remains a subject of discussion.

The Pope and the American Polonia

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła knew the American Polonia long before his election as pope. According to the Archdiocese of Chicago, he was in Chicago in 1969 during a trip to the United States and in 1976 with a delegation of Polish bishops. On September 22, 1969, he visited Hamtramck near Detroit, where, as "Detroit Catholic" reports, nearly 90 percent of the residents were of Polish descent at that time. The mayor declared "Cardinal Karol Wojtyła Days" on this occasion. The chasuble he wore while co-celebrating Mass at St. Florian's Church was still preserved by the parish in 2019 when "Detroit Catholic" reported on it.

As pope, he arrived in Chicago on the evening of October 4, 1979. On the morning of October 5, he celebrated Mass in Polish in a parking lot at Five Holy Martyrs Church, at the corner of 44th Street and Richmond Street. In the afternoon, approximately 1.2 million people gathered in Grant Park, according to estimates.

In 1987, three months after his pilgrimage to Poland, the pope visited Hamtramck again. The speech delivered on September 19, 1987, largely in Polish, was published by the Vatican. The pope referred to Detroit as the second largest Polish population center after Chicago, spoke of over eight hundred "so-called Polish" parishes in the USA, and reminded that the first Poles arrived in Jamestown in 1608. Regarding post-war emigration, he stated that it "maintained deep solidarity with the Homeland and the nation," and thanked the Polish American Congress and the Catholic League, which "provided and continues to provide great material assistance to the Church in Poland." The meeting was hosted by Archbishop of Detroit Edmund Szoka.

The Year 1989 and Beyond

The Round Table and June Elections

The Round Table talks took place from February to April 5, 1989. The Church was present as an observer and mediator. In the preparatory discussions in Magdalenka, Fr. Alojzy Orszulik, Archbishop Bronisław Dąbrowski, and Bishop Tadeusz Gocłowski participated, and at the Round Table itself, the church observers were Fr. Orszulik and Fr. Bronisław Dembowski. Historians Antoni Dudek and Ryszard Gryz, quoted by dzieje.pl, believe that the Church's mediation in the autumn of 1988 maintained the minimum trust necessary to begin the talks.

It must be noted honestly: in the sources we accessed, we found no public statement by John Paul II that directly commented on the course of the Round Table talks or the outcome of the elections on June 4, 1989. Historians emphasize earlier signals, primarily the homily at Zaspa in 1987, in which the pope referred to the August agreements as "a task to be fulfilled." However, the diplomatic consequences are documented. After the Sejm passed the law on the relationship between the state and the Catholic Church in 1989, on July 17, 1989, Poland and the Holy See resumed diplomatic relations, which had been severed after World War II. On August 26, 1989, the pope signed a bull appointing Archbishop Józef Kowalczyk as nuncio, and the nuncio returned to Warsaw after a fifty-year hiatus. Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first non-communist prime minister, made his first foreign visit to Rome and the Vatican on October 19-20, 1989.

1991 Pilgrimage: The First to Free Poland

The fourth pilgrimage took place in two parts: June 1-9, 1991 (Koszalin, Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Lubaczów, Kielce, Radom, Łomża, Białystok, Olsztyn, Włocławek, Płock, Warsaw) and August 13-16, when the pope came for World Youth Day in Częstochowa. Its focus was the Decalogue. The tone was different from the 1980s. The pope no longer defended the nation against the authorities but warned how Poles would use their freedom. On June 3 in Masłów near Kielce, speaking about family and the defense of life, he said: "Maybe that’s why I speak as I do, because this is my mother, this land! This is my Mother, this Homeland! These are my brothers and sisters!" He added: "Understand that these matters cannot not concern me, they cannot not pain me."

How Poles Assess His Role Today

The most detailed data comes from the CBOS report "Poles on John Paul II" (no. 60/2023), based on a survey conducted from April 11-20, 2023, on a sample of 1,081 people. 81 percent of respondents considered the pope an important moral authority, including 58 percent who strongly agreed. A year earlier, in May 2022, the result was the same (81 percent, including 56 percent strongly). When asked why they valued him, respondents most often pointed to his role in overthrowing communism (48 percent), followed by his ability to reach youth (34 percent) and his pilgrimages and teachings worldwide (28 percent). At the same time, 54 percent believed that John Paul II knew about cases of pedophilia among priests, 19 percent believed he did not know, and 26 percent had no opinion. 65 percent of respondents stated that these reports do not undermine his merits, while 23 percent disagreed. CBOS notes that these assessments strongly depend on political views and religiosity.

Dispute Over the Knowledge of the Metropolitan of Kraków

On March 6, 2023, TVN24 aired a report by Marcin Gutowski titled "Franciscan 3," and a few days later, a book by Dutch journalist Ekke Overbeek titled "Maxima culpa. John Paul II Knew" was published. Both publications posited that Cardinal Wojtyła, as Metropolitan of Kraków, knew about the sexual crimes of priests against children (including cases involving Fr. Eugeniusz Surgent, Fr. Józef Loranc, and Fr. Bolesław Sadus) and did not respond appropriately. Critics accused the authors of relying on materials from the SB, which require particular caution. On March 9, 2023, the Sejm adopted a resolution "on the defense of the good name of St. John Paul II," and the Polish Bishops' Conference then announced its readiness to establish a commission of experts to investigate past cases of clergy abusing minors, and in March 2026, it announced that the commission had been formed. On February 10, 2026, after a two-year hiatus, the archives of the Metropolitan Curia in Kraków were reopened. On March 13, 2026, journalists from "Rzeczpospolita," Tomasz Krzyżak and Piotr Litka, published the results of their research in this archive and earlier research in the resources of the IPN. They wrote that "neither in state nor church archives is there evidence that Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, while Metropolitan of Kraków (1962-1978), covered up pedophilia," and some of his decisions were "above standard for that time." Marcin Gutowski accused them of not confronting these findings with the accounts of victims. Radio Kraków pointed out in April 2026 that full documentation is still lacking, so the dispute is not closed.

The Path to Sainthood

John Paul II died on April 2, 2005. He was beatified by Benedict XVI on May 1, 2011. Canonization was performed by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014, in St. Peter's Square, together with the canonization of John XXIII. The Mass was co-celebrated by Benedict XVI. This was the first recorded Mass attended simultaneously by both a sitting and a retired pope. According to estimates, at least 500,000 people gathered in the square and surrounding area, and delegations were sent by over a hundred countries and international organizations.

Curiosities

• "John XXIV in a hundred years." When in 1983 the Church wanted the pope to stop in Poznań at the monument to the victims of June 1956, Adam Łopatka, head of the Office for Religious Affairs, suggested leaving it "for the visit of John XXIV or John Paul V in a hundred years." This statement has been preserved in documents described by the IPN.
• The Minister's Dream. IPN historian Grzegorz Majchrzak quotes words that Interior Minister Czesław Kiszczak reportedly said in the spring of 1983 in a conversation with Soviet comrades: "We can only dream now that God will call him to His bosom as soon as possible." Majchrzak does not specify in his article who recorded these words. According to KGB resident in Poland Vitaly Pavlov, Kiszczak "in a state bordering on panic" also asked Moscow for 20 armored limousines and 150 rubber bullet launchers. This is a report from a KGB officer.
• The Belt from May 13. On June 19, 1983, the pope offered a bloodstained belt to the monastery at Jasna Góra, which he had worn on the day of the assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square in 1981.
• Codename "Aurora." The Security Service secured the 1983 pilgrimage under operation "Aurora," and the one in 1987 as "Aurora II." In Warsaw, an additional case "Visit III" was conducted, for which, according to the registration card, 19 secret collaborators were involved, along with correspondence control, telephone tapping, and surveillance.
• Photos of the Crowd, Not the Pope. Operational photographs from the SB in 1987 focused less on the pope and more on the banners and participants of the Mass. They were intended to help identify people and serve as evidence in courts and misdemeanor boards.
• Fake Diary. In early 1983, SB officers from Captain Grzegorz Piotrowski's group, later the murderer of Fr. Popiełuszko, attempted to plant a fabricated "diary" of the editorial secretary Irena Kinaszewska in the apartment of Fr. Andrzej Bardecki from "Tygodnik Powszechny," which was supposed to compromise the pope with an alleged affair. Piotrowski was exposed, and the diary, according to press reports, was found and destroyed before the security service could "discover" it. Some details of this provocation are based on accounts, and its exact course is not fully documented.
• Gorbachev as a Columnist. The most famous praise of the pope from Gorbachev did not come in an interview but in a column that the former leader of the USSR wrote in 1992 for the Italian "La Stampa." He mentioned that since their meeting in December 1989, he had been conducting "intensive correspondence" with the pope.
• "A Hundred Years" on the Airport Tarmac. On September 22, 1969, when the plane with the then little-known cardinal from Kraków landed in Detroit, 500 Polish Americans were waiting for him on the tarmac, and groups of veterans cheered with the shout "A hundred years."
• Pavarotti to Welcome Him. On the evening of October 4, 1979, at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, the pope was welcomed with the song "Ave Maria" by Luciano Pavarotti. The entire visit to Chicago lasted 37 hours.