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Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Chicago’s Polish community mourns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anna Holmberg blinked back tears as she slowly stroked one of the numerous pictures of Pope John Paul II she keeps on display in her clothing store. Chicago has one of the largest Polish populations outside of Warsaw, and Holmberg and others in the community said Tuesday the pontiff’s death Saturday hurt a bit deeper because he was one of their own.
”I feel like I lose my father,” she said in her store in a Polish neighborhood on the city’s northwest side.
Although it has been more than 25 years since John Paul last visited, for many Poles here, his presence still lingers.
Like Holmberg, many Polish shop owners display ornately framed photographs, post cards and posters of the pope in their windows as if his visit was just last week instead of decades ago.
John Paul visited the city in 1969, 1976 and then as pope in 1979. Each time he celebrated Mass at Five Holy Martyrs Church on the city’s southwest side. Many still talk about his last visit, and how tens of thousands packed the parking lot next to the church to hear him speak from an outdoor altar that still stands in the parking lot — adorned now with black bunting.
”It was a chilly morning — I think it was 42 degrees,” said Stanley Moskal, 79, who attended the Mass with his siblings. ”It was a very beautiful occasion, I remember that mostly everybody was so excited that he was here.”
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Polish lawmakers honor pontiff
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lawmakers in Pope John Paul II’s homeland honored him as a national hero on Wednesday with prayers, eulogies and praise for his support of the pro-democracy opposition that peacefully ended communist rule of Poland in 1989.
On the parliament chamber’s podium, a black sash was draped across the white-and-red banners of Poland’s national colors. A portrait of the pope and an ornamented armchair from which he addressed lawmakers in June 1999 stood nearby.
”Poland is crying over the loss of her most outstanding son,” parliament speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told an assembly of the upper and lower houses attended by President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Marek Belka and senior Roman Catholic clergy.
”United by sadness and pain, Poles honor the memory of a wonderful, clever man and an outstanding pope,” he said. ”The man is gone, but his ideas and thoughts remain.”
After the assembly watched a video of the 1999 speech, prayers for the pope’s soul to rest in peace rose from the floor and lawmakers observed a minute of silence.
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China irked at Taiwan leader’s visit to Vatican
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Taiwan’s leader will make an unprecedented visit to the Vatican to attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral, the government said Wednesday in a move that would likely irk rival China.
President Chen Shui-bian will attend the pope’s funeral on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said. It will be the first trip to Europe by a Taiwanese president, who rarely make foreign visits because of China’s objections.
The Vatican is Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Europe. But under pressure from Beijing, Italy had refused to issue visas to Taiwan’s presidents in the past. Michel Lu, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Chen will depart for Rome on Thursday. Italy issued Chen a visa and will accord him with protocols reserved for heads of state, Lu said.
”He will take a China Airlines charter flight to Rome … and will return to Taipei” after the funeral, he said.
Beijing is expected to lodge a strong protest against Chen’s visit with Italy. China considers Taiwan a part of its own territory and has barred the island’s leaders from taking part in international events.
By attending the funeral, Chen will have the rare chance of meeting heads of state and help raise the international profile of the self-rule island.
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