John Paul II's 1979 Pilgrimage to Poland: Nine Days That Mattered

John Paul II’s 1979 pilgrimage to Poland was the nine-day visit, from 2 to 10 June 1979, in which the newly elected Polish pope returned to his communist-ruled homeland. Millions of people attended his open-air Masses in Warsaw, Gniezno, Częstochowa, Kraków and at Auschwitz. Many historians see the visit as a moment when Poles rediscovered their collective strength, paving the way for the Solidarity movement a year later.

Background: a Polish pope

On 16 October 1978 Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków, was elected pope and took the name John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries and the first from a communist country. In Poland, where the Catholic Church had remained strong despite three decades of communist rule, the news was greeted with jubilation.

The government of party leader Edward Gierek could hardly refuse a visit. It wanted to avoid confrontation with the Church and to keep Western credit flowing, yet it feared the political effect. The Church originally hoped the pope would come in May 1979 for the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Stanisław, a bishop of Kraków killed on the orders of King Bolesław II. The authorities insisted on June instead, and the visit was arranged after long negotiations.

The visit

John Paul II landed at Warsaw’s Okęcie airport on 2 June 1979 and kissed the ground. That afternoon he celebrated Mass in Victory Square before a crowd of several hundred thousand, with a huge cross erected near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In his homily he said that Christ could not be excluded from the history of man in any part of the globe. He ended by calling on the Holy Spirit to descend and renew the face of the earth, adding “the face of this land”. The crowd answered with prolonged applause and chants.

He then travelled to Gniezno, cradle of Polish Christianity, where he spoke of the spiritual unity of Europe and of the Slavic nations. At the shrine of Jasna Góra in Częstochowa, home of the Black Madonna icon, he met bishops and pilgrims. In Kraków he met students and visited his home town of Wadowice and the sanctuary of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska.

On 7 June he celebrated Mass at the former Nazi camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, calling it the “Golgotha of the modern world” and pausing before memorial plaques in many languages, including Hebrew and Russian. On 8 June he met highlanders in Nowy Targ. The pilgrimage ended on 10 June with a Mass on the Błonia meadow in Kraków, attended by a crowd usually estimated at one to two million or more, where he urged Poles never to lose their spiritual freedom.

Organisation and atmosphere

State television tried to limit coverage, often showing the pope rather than the size of the crowds. Yet the events were organised largely by the Church and thousands of lay volunteers, who kept order without the police. Many Poles later recalled the novelty of being among so many people who shared their beliefs, in a calm and disciplined atmosphere.

Estimates suggest that about 10 to 13 million people, roughly a third of the population, saw the pope in person, while millions more followed on radio and television. Primate Stefan Wyszyński, the elderly head of the Polish Church, accompanied him for much of the journey.

The pope also met Edward Gierek and other state leaders at the Belweder Palace in Warsaw on 2 June. Both sides spoke politely of peace and cooperation, but John Paul II stressed that the Church sought no privileges, only the freedom to carry out its mission. Western journalists who covered the visit in large numbers reported the contrast between official reticence and the crowds’ enthusiasm.

Consequences

The visit did not call for revolt; John Paul II spoke of human dignity, faith and national history rather than politics. But it showed Poles that the communist state did not represent them and that they could organise peacefully on a vast scale. Fourteen months later the strikes of August 1980 gave birth to the Solidarity movement, whose leaders openly drew on Catholic symbols.

The pope returned to Poland in June 1983, during the last weeks of martial law, and again in 1987. Communist rule in Poland ended in 1989, as part of the wider revolutions of 1989.

Timeline

• 1978, 16 October: Karol Wojtyła elected pope as John Paul II.
• 1979, 2 June: Arrival in Warsaw; Mass in Victory Square.
• 1979, 3 June: Pope visits Gniezno.
• 1979, 4 June: Pope arrives at Jasna Góra, Częstochowa.
• 1979, 7 June: Visits to Wadowice and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska; Mass at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
• 1979, 8 June: Meeting with highlanders in Nowy Targ.
• 1979, 10 June: Final Mass at Błonia, Kraków; departure for Rome.

Why it matters

The 1979 pilgrimage was a turning point in the late Cold War. Without challenging the regime directly, it gave millions of Poles a sense of shared identity and confidence that fed directly into the peaceful mass movement that would help bring communism down.