April 13, 2010
POTUS will travel to Poland. The State funeral for the President and First Lady of Poland will take place on Saturday in Warsaw, followed by burial in Krakow’s Wawel Castle on Sunday.
On Saturday evening, the President will travel to Krakow, Poland to attend the State Funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria Kaczynska on Sunday, April 18th. The President will travel to Krakow to express the depth of our condolences to an important and trusted ally, and our support for the Polish people, on behalf of the American people.
This one act will directly affect Chicago more than anything he has yet done, as Chicago has the largest Polish community in the world outside Poland. And perhaps it will atone for his dis of the Polish press just prior to his election.
Pope John Paul II, the first Polish pontiff, was only the second Pope to visit the US, the first to visit the White House and the first ever to visit Chicago. Chicago at that time was the largest Catholic archdiocese in the US. He arrived as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in 1969 and 1976 and returned in 1979 as Pope John Paul II. In Grant Park (where barry had his victory celebration), he celebrated the largest Mass ever in Chicago, attended by 1.2M.
He also traveled down Milwaukee Avenue in a white limo, standing with his upper body out of the sunroof, waving and blessing the bystanders. Hard to believe now. There was no security of any sort. It was a singular experience to stand surrounded by Poles in rapture at the sight of their countryman, the Pope.
Saturday, Poles once again traveled down Milwaukee Avenue, this time in mourning, just like in 2005 when the Pope died.
Beginning at Chopin Park, a procession made its way to St Hyacinth’s Basilica where Mass was celebrated in Polish. Pope John Paul II had visited St Hyacinth’s as Cardinal and a bronze statue of him as Pope stands in the Memorial Garden next door.
Names of all those who perished in the plane crash were read, including that of fellow parishioner, sculptor Wojciech Seweryn, who had dedicated most of his adult life to remembering the Katyn Massacre, in which his own father was murdered. A father who had “held him in a Polish hospital the day he was born and then never saw him again”.
Seweryn (70) led the construction of the Katyn Massacre Memorial dedicated last year at St Adalbert’s Cemetery, attended by President Kaczynski, and his trip to Russia to commemorate the 70th Anniversary was to be the culmination of his life’s work.
Seweryn’s initial plan was to travel via train, but was offered the honor of traveling with the President via plane. It’s hard to fathom. His daughter, Anna Wojtowicz, said the night before he died, which he spent dining with the President and other dignitaries, was “the best of his life”. His wife had accompanied him to Poland but was not on the flight because she was feeling ill.
President Kaczynski was expected to attend the Polish Constitution Day Parade here on May 1.
Katyn Massacre Memorial – St Adalbert’s Cemetery
Virgin Mary holding a dying Polish soldier who was shot in the head.
