Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way, by Pope John Paul II. 2004. Warner Books, New York

Insights into the Pre-Papal Life of Pope John Paul II. Supports a Maligned Polish Cardinal

This book describes how Karol Wojtyla felt about his ordination into the priesthood, and later as a bishop. He tied the origins of the Mass with Christ’s Last Supper, and touched on other theological matters.

Karol Wojtyla (JPII) compared the devotion of Polish Catholics towards the Lady of Czestochowa with that of Mexican Catholics towards Our Lady of Guadalupe. There is a chapter in this book on the Saints of Krakow, as well as Polish martyrs at the hands of the Nazis (not only Maximilian Kolbe).

THEN IT WAS SOVIET-DRIVEN MARXISM. NOW IT IS WESTERN CULTURAL MARXISM

The future pope wrote of his life in Krakow. He loved the Wawel Cathedral, recalling the pain of seeing the Nazi swastika flying over it, and his satisfaction of seeing it gone and the Polish flag flying over it once more. He also recounts the “battle” over the church at Nowa Huta, a new city which the Soviet-installed Communist authorities had built as a religion-free workers’ city. His ministries towards youth were intended to counter the Communist attempts to groom a new generation of Poles in Communist ways.

ON CARDINAL ADAM SAPHIEHA

Interestingly, Pope John Paul II called Cardinal Adam Sapieha his role model. (p. 133). (This cardinal has been maligned by Jan T. Gross as being indifferent to the Nazi persecution of Jews in German-occupied Poland, while Pope John Paul II was known as an opponent of anti-Semitism and a promoter of Polish-Jewish relations. Therefore, the endorsement of this cardinal by Pope John Paul II is all the more significant.)

For further refutation of the calumnies directed at Adam Sapieha, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/betrayals-jewish-more-common-than-polish-bieberstein/