Some Yearn to Bring Pope Home

For centuries, it was a custom to remove the heart of a beloved person who died abroad and bring it back to native soil.

Polish composer Frederic Chopin died in Paris in 1849 and was buried in that city’s Pere Lachaise Cemetery. But his heart rests here in Warsaw, in an urn placed in a pillar of the Holy Cross Church, near the palace where Chopin had last lived in Poland. A verse from the Gospel of Matthew, “Where your treasure is, there will also be your heart,” is inscribed on a plaque on the pillar, which generations of music lovers have visited.

Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, the military leader who regained Poland’s independence in 1918 and guided the country until his death in 1935, lies with the medieval Polish kings and queens in a dim, much-visited crypt beneath Wawel Cathedral in Krakow. But as he had requested, his heart was placed next to his mother’s remains in what was then Wilno, Poland, and now is Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

Now, at least some Poles are saying they wish the custom could be followed in the case of Pope John Paul II, who left the country to become pontiff in 1978 yet, they believe, never really left it in spirit.

Although the Vatican has announced that John Paul will be interred Friday alongside most of his papal predecessors in the crypt below St. Peter’s Basilica, some Poles said Monday that they regretted that the pontiff apparently had not left a will or testament instructing that at least his heart be allowed to journey home.

The mayor of Krakow, where Karol Wojtyla was archbishop for the 14 years immediately before becoming pope, raised the possibility in comments to newspapers Sunday.

“We would want the heart of the greatest resident of Krakow and of the greatest Pole to rest at the Wawel,” said Mayor Jacek Majchrowski.

“But it is the church that makes the rules, and we will respect them,” he told Gazeta Wyborcza, a national newspaper.

Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, a friend of the pope’s who succeeded him as archbishop and often played host to him on his return visits to Krakow, told another newspaper that bringing back the heart was a custom not appropriate in the modern world. He said it harked back to the times when relics of saints and martyrs were distributed to churches and pilgrimage sites so that people could visit and feel closer to the departed figure.

The cardinal noted that Polish literary figures such as Adam Mickiewicz and Julius Slowacki, who both died abroad in the 19th century, eventually had their remains reinterred in Wawel. But their real monuments are their works, he said, and it should be likewise with the pope.

“This tradition is no longer ours,” Macharski said. “Respect for the human body says that it should be laid in a grave.”

In Warsaw, outside the Holy Cross Church where Chopin’s heart is interred, worshipers at a vigil for John Paul said they agreed with the decision to leave his remains at the Vatican.

“In my heart, he is still a Pole and will remain a Pole, but the body and heart should be together in the Vatican, because that has been the tradition for popes for centuries,” said Pawel Siwakowski, 30, a businessman.

Bringing the heart to Poland would be unnecessary for him and many others, he said. “He will live in my heart forever.”

Miroslawa Konicka, 60, a retired teacher, agreed. “He did leave us so much else: his teachings, his life, his faith,” she said.

Her husband, Jerzy, 64, said he had been half-expecting and hoping that the pope would send his heart to Poland, but in his opinion the pontiff’s deep respect for church tradition overwhelmed his personal sentiments for his homeland.

Miroslawa Konicka said the pope was too modest to ask that his heart be moved to Poland, and that in any case, it was the practical decision.

“Wadowice [his birthplace] wants him. Krakow wants him. Even Warsaw wants him. Every place in the world wants him. How could the world ever possibly divide him?” she asked. “After all, Rome is a beautiful place, and I think there will be enough chances to go there to see him in the future.”

London Bureau chief Daniszewski is on assignment in Warsaw. Special correspondent Ela Kasprzycka in Krakow and Warsaw contributed to this report.