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World Youth Day: Pope celebrates Mass at historic Polish shrine

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 28.07.2016 10:21
On the second day of his visit to Poland for World Youth Day, Pope Francis on Thursday celebrated a Mass in the southern city Częstochowa marking the 1,050th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland.
 Pope Francis arriving in Częstochowa. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka Pope Francis arriving in Częstochowa. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

The mass took place at Częstochowa’s Black Madonna shrine, a sanctuary of key historical significance to Poles and a site at which Poland previously hosted World Youth Day in 1991.

The religious rites were attended by Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Beata Szydło, while hundreds of thousands of faithful gathered around the shrine.

Polish ruler Mieszko I accepted the western form of Christianity in 966, a watershed event known as the Baptism of Poland which is regarded as marking the origins of the Polish state.

In a homily at Thursday's Mass, Pope Francis spoke of love, humility – and power: “To be attracted by power, by grandeur, by appearances, is tragically human. It is a great temptation that tries to insinuate itself everywhere. But to give oneself to others, eliminating distances, dwelling in littleness and living the reality of one’s everyday life - this is exquisitely divine.”

In an unscheduled visit, on his way to Częstochowa Pope Francis briefly stopped by the University Hospital in the southern city of Kraków to talk to doctors caring for Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, 89, the former archbishop of that city.

The cardinal, a close friend of the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II, has not regained consciousness after undergoing an operation.

Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, flew in to Kraków on Wednesday, where in an opening speech he appealed for "wisdom and compassion" towards migrants fleeing war and hunger, and the protection of life "from conception to natural death".

World Youth Day, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, is being held this year under the slogan "Blessed are the Merciful.”

Organizers predict that up to 1.5 million people from 187 countries are likely to attend the main events - a night vigil with the pope on Saturday and an open-air mass celebrated by the pontiff on the last day, Sunday.

Launched by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s, World Youth Day has been held every two or three years in different countries. (pk/rg)

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