Official Visits Poland

On the road again, Pope John Paul II came home to Poland on Tuesday for a nostalgic and emotional visit that improbably began with a strong American accent. Embarking on the 52nd foreign trip of his reign and his fifth to Poland, the 71-year-old pontiff knelt in prayer for about five minutes before the gray-black marble tombstone where his family lies in a cemetery on the outskirts of town.

Rallying from a weakness so profound he wasn't able to muster a smile, Pope John Paul II recovered a hint of his hallmark wit and warmth Wednesday, the last full day of his Polish visit, to bid farewell to this beloved place of his birth and baptism. It was the most moving of his 18 stops on this longest and presumably last of seven papal visits to Poland that has taken the ailing, 79-year-old pontiff across the length and breadth of the country.

An angry and emotional Pope John Paul II beseeched Poles on Monday to abandon the practice of abortion, saying the world would become "a nightmare" if families treated the "conceived child" as a burden to be disposed of in hard times. At a rain-soaked outdoor Mass in the southern city of Kielce, the Pope raised his voice and pumped his arms as he departed from prepared remarks to accuse Poles of irresponsibility on abortion.

At a Mass before 1 million pilgrims who turned the center of the Polish capital into a human sea, Pope John Paul II beatified 110 martyrs Sunday and called on fellow Poles to emulate the sacrifice and charity of Roman Catholic victims of history. The beatification ceremonies drew one of the biggest gatherings of the pope's 20-year pontificate as he sent the 110 who gave their lives for their faith to the last step before sainthood.

Poland's most famous turncoat made an emotional visit to his homeland Monday after 17 years in exile, defending his actions to a public still divided over whether he is a hero or a traitor. Col. Ryszard Kuklinski, a longtime spy who fled Poland after telling the CIA about the Communist regime's plans to impose martial law, said that he acted in the interest of Polish independence. "We saw the need to escape the Soviet grip.

Pope John Paul II returned to his native land Saturday for a seventh and probably final sojourn to celebrate Eastern Europe's moral victory over communism a decade ago and pray for those still suffering in despotism's tenacious grip. Against the backdrop of continued bloodshed and sorrow in the shattered Balkans, the pontiff praised his fellow Poles for heeding "the cry of conscience" that rang out from shipyard workers of this Baltic Sea port demanding dignity and human rights.

Pope John Paul II returned to his roots here in rural Poland on Monday in a lightning homecoming by helicopter marked as much by moral admonishment as favorite-son nostalgia. Huge crowds welcomed the 75-year-old pontiff and left him misty-eyed on a nine-hour visit to three mountain towns in a picturesque region of southern Poland not far from his birthplace.

Appealing to logic and national pride, President Clinton sought Thursday to bolster weary Poles' faith in the free market's "proven path to prosperity," as economics overshadowed security concerns in his second day of meetings with Polish leaders. Clinton, who later flew to Naples, Italy, for a three-day economic summit that begins today, spoke in an appearance before the Sejm, or lower house of Parliament, of Poles' valor in fighting Adolf Hitler and in their long struggles against the Soviets.

With President Bush and Polish President Lech Walesa looking on, the remains of Ignace Jan Paderewski, perhaps the greatest modern personification of fervent Polish patriotism, were brought to their final resting place Sunday in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, 51 years after the statesman and musician died in exile in New York City while the Nazis occupied his homeland.

Pope John Paul II on Saturday hailed the "new voice" of freedom in post-Communist Poland but urged his increasingly skeptical countrymen to stick to their Roman Catholic traditions. Smaller-than-expected crowds greeted John Paul as he opened his 12-city, nine-day pilgrimage here on the Baltic coast, in sharp contrast to the huge turnouts of his three previous trips to his homeland.

Pope John Paul II returned to his native land Saturday for a seventh and probably final sojourn to celebrate Eastern Europe's moral victory over communism a decade ago and pray for those still suffering in despotism's tenacious grip. Against the backdrop of continued bloodshed and sorrow in the shattered Balkans, the pontiff praised his fellow Poles for heeding "the cry of conscience" that rang out from shipyard workers of this Baltic Sea port demanding dignity and human rights.

Poland's most famous turncoat made an emotional visit to his homeland Monday after 17 years in exile, defending his actions to a public still divided over whether he is a hero or a traitor. Col. Ryszard Kuklinski, a longtime spy who fled Poland after telling the CIA about the Communist regime's plans to impose martial law, said that he acted in the interest of Polish independence. "We saw the need to escape the Soviet grip.

He climbed the altar with a cane and spoke with a weary voice, slurring his prayers. The 300,000 worshipers kept interrupting. "We love you!" they chanted. Slowly, Pope John Paul II regained his vigor. He recalled the prediction 19 autumns ago by his mentor, the late Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, that he, the just-elected Polish pope, would lead the Roman Catholic Church to the year 2000. Then the stooped figure, a distant white speck to many who heard him, electrified the crowd.

Pope John Paul II today begins his fifth and longest pilgrimage to his native Poland, a highly anticipated journey likely to be marked by religious, political and personal drama. The pontiff starts the 11-day visit in the southwestern city of Wroclaw, where an estimated 1 million pilgrims have been gathering at a world congress of Roman Catholics and other Christians.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl paid his respects Saturday to the more than 1.5 million people killed at Auschwitz during World War II. Kohl, on a three-day visit to Poland, toured the site of the former Nazi Germany's death camp with Poland's Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, an Auschwitz survivor.

Pope John Paul II returned to his roots here in rural Poland on Monday in a lightning homecoming by helicopter marked as much by moral admonishment as favorite-son nostalgia. Huge crowds welcomed the 75-year-old pontiff and left him misty-eyed on a nine-hour visit to three mountain towns in a picturesque region of southern Poland not far from his birthplace.

Pope John Paul II, arriving today for a fourth papal pilgrimage to his homeland, will find a very different Poland from the one he encountered on his last visit in 1987. Then, the Communists were still in power, the trade union Solidarity was illegal, the shops were empty and the visit of the Polish Pope was an event of brightness and excitement in a long, bleak period of political and economic gloom.

He climbed the altar with a cane and spoke with a weary voice, slurring his prayers. The 300,000 worshipers kept interrupting. "We love you!" they chanted. Slowly, Pope John Paul II regained his vigor. He recalled the prediction 19 autumns ago by his mentor, the late Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, that he, the just-elected Polish pope, would lead the Roman Catholic Church to the year 2000. Then the stooped figure, a distant white speck to many who heard him, electrified the crowd.

Appealing to logic and national pride, President Clinton sought Thursday to bolster weary Poles' faith in the free market's "proven path to prosperity," as economics overshadowed security concerns in his second day of meetings with Polish leaders. Clinton, who later flew to Naples, Italy, for a three-day economic summit that begins today, spoke in an appearance before the Sejm, or lower house of Parliament, of Poles' valor in fighting Adolf Hitler and in their long struggles against the Soviets.

With President Bush and Polish President Lech Walesa looking on, the remains of Ignace Jan Paderewski, perhaps the greatest modern personification of fervent Polish patriotism, were brought to their final resting place Sunday in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, 51 years after the statesman and musician died in exile in New York City while the Nazis occupied his homeland.