Pope Backs Moves for Polish Ties With Vatican

Pope John Paul II, concluding a week’s pilgrimage to his native country, said Sunday that it is “normal and right” that Poland and the Holy See should establish diplomatic relations, but he cautioned that “serious work” remains before Poland could become the only Warsaw Pact nation with such ties.

Before leaving Poland, the Pope talked with this country’s leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, in a hastily arranged 50-minute private meeting at Warsaw’s military airport.

In farewell remarks afterward, Jaruzelski, saying that Poland, “like any other country . . . is no paradise,” declared that this nation “has its own road, the road of renewal, democratization, reforms.”

Jaruzelski continued: “All our Polish affairs are only a part of the eternal stream of the general human history. During your pilgrimages to so many countries your holiness could see how much of social wrong, misery, injustice and disregard for the rights of man there is still in the world. Let the word solidarity-- with all people who continue suffering from racism, neo-colonialism, exploitation, unemployment, persecution and intolerance--be heard from this land.”

In response, John Paul expressed his approval of the Polish government’s permission to build more Roman Catholic churches in Poland and noted that, despite problems he described as “Poland’s challenge,” he had noted progress in his native country.

“Dialogue is still needed, and perseverance,” the Pope said.

‘Broad Range of Subjects’

On their flight back to Rome, a senior Vatican official told reporters traveling with the Pope that the pontiff and Jaruzelski held their private talk because both thought it would be “useful.” He said that a “broad range of subjects” was discussed, including the possibility of future diplomatic ties between Warsaw and the Holy See.

The official said the Vatican views the Pope’s statement on the subject as “very important” because “for the first time the Pope himself has said it.” He added that a mixed church-state commission will meet as scheduled in July and that the Pope hopes that progress toward diplomatic relations will emerge from that meeting.

“This could be a great step, not only for Poland but for many others--the other East Bloc countries,” the senior official said.

At present, Cuba and Yugoslavia are the only Communist nations having formal diplomatic ties with the Vatican.

Earlier, John Paul urged Poland’s bishops to press forward on proposals that could lead to diplomatic relations, and he emphasized that the church should be concerned with a society’s “observance of the rights of a human person.”

No Ties Since 1945

About 95% of Poland’s 37 million population is Catholic, but the country has not had diplomatic ties with the Holy See since the Communists took power in 1945.

The Pope said, “The Holy See considers relations with a given state as a right and normal thing.” He described the absence of ties between the Vatican and an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country like Poland as “rather something abnormal.”

The Polish government has been pressing for the formation of relations in an effort to boost its international credibility. But some figures in the Polish church have been cautious about such a move, fearing it could undermine local church influence by letting the government deal directly with the Vatican about Catholic affairs in Poland.

Some Polish bishops are urging that the government clearly define the church’s legal status, securing its properties, its schools and universities and their degree-granting powers, and, most importantly, its social-action organizations, usually viewed by the government with suspicion.

The Pope, addressing an assembly of Polish bishops, said the Vatican will consult extensively with them before reaching a decision. But he also prodded them forward, saying it was necessary for him “to call and invite the Polish bishops for collective cooperation.”

Appearance at Priest’s Grave

John Paul began the last day of his third journey to Poland with an emotional appearance at the Warsaw church of a pro-Solidarity priest, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who was slain in 1984 by police.

The Pope prayed and meditated before the massive marble cross marking the priest’s grave and blessed Popieluszko’s parents, Marianna and Wladyslaw. A crowd of tens of thousands pressed around the church and filled the adjoining streets.

Later, the Pope officiated at a Mass viewed by a crowd estimated at 1 million, gathered in the square before the Palace of Science and Culture, a 37-story skyscraper that was a gift to the Polish people from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Many in the crowd took particular delight in the scene of the Pope addressing them on the site of a monument to what the pontiff called the “programmed atheism” of the Communist world.

He drew a thunderous cheer when he mentioned Lithuanian church members, who had sent a delegation to the Eucharistic Congress here, as being “in the territories of the great Russia and of our brother Slavs.” The group from Lithuania, a Catholic nation annexed by the Soviet Union in World War II, also received loud applause as they passed during an hourlong street procession at the end of the Mass.

Solidarity Banners Displayed

Amid the throng at the Mass were dozens of red-lettered Solidarity banners. One of them read: “A fourth pilgrimage in a free Poland.”

About 2,000 supporters of the now-outlawed Solidarity independent trade union began a demonstration after the Mass, but it was broken up quickly by police. The police tore down at least one large Solidarity banner, and witnesses said five demonstrators were briefly detained.

The Pope’s final day in Warsaw was relatively calm in contrast with events Thursday and Friday in the Baltic seacoast area of Gdansk, where Solidarity was born in 1980. There, the Pope repeatedly invoked the union’s name and its ideals, endorsing the idea of “an independent and self-governing” trade union as a concept that was in keeping with the teachings of the church.

The result was an outpouring of opposition sentiment that included a massive demonstration in Gdansk after a Mass held there Friday.

The apparent escalation of the Pope’s vocal support of Solidarity was countered by an evident nervousness on the part of the government. Although the Gdansk demonstration by Solidarity supporters was broken up by a heavy concentration of police, who arrested 37 people, it was the largest street demonstration in the country in nearly three years.

Two ranking members of the Polish government met briefly with the pontiff Saturday morning and, according to informed church sources, pointed out that “Poland’s neighbors” were distressed with much of the Pope’s message.