News that suspected Islamist militants interrupted a church service in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, forced 85-year-old parish priest Father Jacques Hamel to his knees and slit his throat, sent a sudden deep chill over the World Youth Day event. “But it’s war.” He said the conflict was not “a religious war”, adding that “all religions preach peace – it’s the others who want war”.
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In the opening Mass, Kraków Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, former secretary to St Pope John Paul II, called on young Catholics to read a “message of divine mercy”.
But before he can relax into the friendship, Bible studies, pastoral visits and prayer that he loves so much, the Pope’s first duty is at Wawel Castle where he will make a speech to an audience of diplomats and local dignitaries.
Pilgrims gather for the opening ceremony of World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland July 26, 2016.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE- On his way to Krakow to participate in World Youth Day, a week-long Catholic celebration that’s often labeled as the religious version of Woodstock, Pope Francis denounced what he described as a worldwide war.
“In our more and more secularised society, it’s very reaffirming for the faith of young people to be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of others like this”. Some Western leaders have said that Poland’s rule of law is threatened and the European Commission has opened scrutiny procedures, while tens of thousands of Poles have marched against the government’s policy. Polish President Andrzej Duda has been outspoken in his opposition to allowing Muslims into Poland. He then traveled in an open auto through the city, waving at crowds as he headed to the Wawel Castle for the main welcoming ceremony.
Early in the trip, Francis is expected to pay tribute to the murdered priest, who some have said should be declared a martyr because of the way he was killed for his faith. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack.
“It shocked me because it seems they waited for the time of World Youth Day to attack us Catholics”, said Nounella Blanchedent, 22, from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
It will be Francis’ first visit to Poland, a predominantly Catholic country that is still proud of the late pontiff, St. John Paul II, who served as priest and archbishop in Krakow before becoming pope.
“We bring our fears and disappointments, but also our hopes and yearning, our desire to live in a more human, more fraternal and solidarity word”, Dziwisz said in his homily to the pilgrims.
“In prayer we are a pair: God and me, fighting together for what is important”. Casimir Church, where a Mass was being held in French for pilgrims from France, Belgium and other countries.
Meanwhile, a Catholic from neighbouring Ukraine, Elisabeth Dotsenko, said she and other members of the 5,000-strong Ukrainian Catholic delegation had got along well with Russian pilgrims in Krakow, despite the war now raging in their country.
However, a police spokesman said the category of “alpha”, or high, was not linked to any “concrete threat”, adding that security arrangements were “proceeding smoothly” for the expected arrival of 2 million young people in the southern city.
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Some 200,000 pilgrims attended an inaugural Mass Tuesday afternoon.
