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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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