John Paul II
The election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła as Pope, on October 16th 1978, had great significance for those living in countries that were oppressing a sense of dignity, solidarity, and freedom. After 456 years of Italian popes, the election of the very first Slavic cardinal, who chose the name John Paul II, was the stimulus required to commence a wave of changes throughout the oppressed Communistic countries of Eastern Europe. His first pilgrimage to Poland - on the 4th of June 1979 - awakened in the Polish nation the hope, resilience, and faith necessary to resist the deeply ingrained Communist system.
Jonathan Kwitny, in Man of the Century, penned that John Paul II’s utmost influential role was as the front-runner in charge of terminating the …show more content…
At this point in time, thousands of union heads and academics had already been transported to detention encampments and Lech Wałęsa, the head of Solidarity, was being detained at an anonymous site. The imposition of martial law meant the postponement of union events and the obliteration of the right to labor. Most importantly, it aimed at the eradication of an entire nation's' basic privilege to liberty (144). When John Paul revisited for an eight-day outing in June 1983, the atmosphere was subdued. As he voyaged from Warsaw – and made numerous sojourns in southern and western Poland – to Kraków, he consoled and revived a population on the brink of anguish, defying – albeit implicitly – the government held accountable for Poland’s miseries (Felak …show more content…
Did his attendance give the momentum to initiate the countrywide uprising that steered toward the dissolution of Eastern-European communism? The reality looks to be that nevertheless of Wojtyła’s papal appointment and his 1979 visit, the condition in Poland had developed so severely – communally, economically, and diplomatically – that the nation was on the threshold of eruption. Stalinist financial maladministration, management perversion, and partisan suppression had generated the environment that had resulted in the gory calamities of 1956, 1970, and 1976. Situations were even poorer in 1979, when John Paul II revisited his birthplace and the European communist structure was beginning to deteriorate (Szulc 307).
In other words, Polish governmental undercurrents did not really necessitate a peripheral stimulant. At the same time, though, such an impetus in the being of a Polish pope, in the centre of his ardently fervent Catholic countrymen, indisputably performed a part in hastening the rise of incidents, at least in terms of coast-to-coast attitude
Jonathan Kwitny, in Man of the Century, penned that John Paul II’s utmost influential role was as the front-runner in charge of terminating the …show more content…
At this point in time, thousands of union heads and academics had already been transported to detention encampments and Lech Wałęsa, the head of Solidarity, was being detained at an anonymous site. The imposition of martial law meant the postponement of union events and the obliteration of the right to labor. Most importantly, it aimed at the eradication of an entire nation's' basic privilege to liberty (144). When John Paul revisited for an eight-day outing in June 1983, the atmosphere was subdued. As he voyaged from Warsaw – and made numerous sojourns in southern and western Poland – to Kraków, he consoled and revived a population on the brink of anguish, defying – albeit implicitly – the government held accountable for Poland’s miseries (Felak …show more content…
Did his attendance give the momentum to initiate the countrywide uprising that steered toward the dissolution of Eastern-European communism? The reality looks to be that nevertheless of Wojtyła’s papal appointment and his 1979 visit, the condition in Poland had developed so severely – communally, economically, and diplomatically – that the nation was on the threshold of eruption. Stalinist financial maladministration, management perversion, and partisan suppression had generated the environment that had resulted in the gory calamities of 1956, 1970, and 1976. Situations were even poorer in 1979, when John Paul II revisited his birthplace and the European communist structure was beginning to deteriorate (Szulc 307).
In other words, Polish governmental undercurrents did not really necessitate a peripheral stimulant. At the same time, though, such an impetus in the being of a Polish pope, in the centre of his ardently fervent Catholic countrymen, indisputably performed a part in hastening the rise of incidents, at least in terms of coast-to-coast attitude