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uted to this consecration the grace of “never having The Communist regime did not like Wyszynski’s
had the shadow of a grudge against anyone.” idea and his renewal program. Despite assurances to
Cardinal Wyszynski forgave everyone, even those guarantee the freedom of the Church, the Commun-
who jailed and detained him in harsh conditions, such ists again began to treat members of the Church with
as in Stoczek Warminski where he severely damaged hostility. They ran special training courses on how to
his health during the harsh winter. Ice and frost were destroy Church members in their workplaces as well
everywhere then: in the hallway, in the cell and on the as in schools and create conditions similar to the easy
windows. The rooms were not heated at all, the walls way of life in the West, to create cold Christians, to
were covered with mushrooms. To go out into the make them materialistic people to finally leave the
garden, the primate had to clear the stairs. Sometimes Church.
the snowdrifts made it difficult to leave the building. In 1964, the primate invited Pope Paul VI to par-
As the Primate wrote, Stoczek was a place where he ticipate in the Polish millennium, but the Communists
couldn’t “warm his feet once.” He even had to wash refused him entry into Poland. At the end of 1965, the
himself in ice water. There were times when the water Polish episcopate invited bishops from 56 countries
froze. There were also days when the primate could to the millennium celebrations, which culminated in a
not write because his cold hands refused to obey him. meeting in Jasna Góra on May 3, 1966. In his homily,
His hands were swelling, his head, kidneys and stom- the Cardinal Primate declared:
ach aching. Despite many requests, he could not get
any medicine, not even a pain reliever.
In Komancza, the last place of his imprisonment,
the primate completed the text of the oath of Jasna
Góra, which was to be the cornerstone of the moral
and spiritual renewal of Poland. It was linked to the
preparations for the celebration of the millennium of
Poland’s baptism, in 1966.
On August 26, 1956, over a million people gath-
ered in Jasna Góra for the feast of Our Lady of Czesto-
chowa. All the Polish bishops surrounded the empty
chair on which Primate Wyszynski should have sat.
Then Bishop Michał Klepacz read the text of Primate
Wyszynski’s oath, and people kept repeating, “We
promise to be faithful to God, the Church and the Gos-
pel.”
After the Czestochowa ceremonies and the work-
ers’ demonstration in Poznan in June 1956, the Com- Cardinal Wyszynski in Jasna Gora in 1966
munist authorities decided to release Wyszynski from “Yes, we have to turn everything into love. I al-
prison on October 26, 1956. The government canceled ways pray for those who slander me, and I think their
the 1953 decree on the approval of church posts by the bishop’s prayer will be helpful to them. I may forget to
Communists, then announced the re-establishment of pray for them if they stop insulting me! ... At this his-
religious education in schools, the return of monks toric moment, fully aware and filled with freedom of
and nuns to their social work, and the annulment of spirit and love for our land, we entrust Poland to Mary;
the remainder of Bishop Kaczmarek’s sentence. we give her Poland as her slaves, and the people of the
Great Novena second millennium will feel safe around her. Filled with
Then, Primate Wyszynski implemented his pro- love for the universal Church and for the Church of Po-
gram of the Great Novena for the millennium of Chris- land, we entrust our nation to Mary for the Church, at
tianity in Poland. It was then that he initiated a nine- the service of the universal Church!”
year program of renewal of faith and morals. Based on On the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the
preached biblical and moral truth, as well as on reflec- presence of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Jasna
tion on the sacraments, this program was carried out Góra, Cardinal Wyszynski began in 1976 “six years of
in every parish and ecclesial community. gratitude for six centuries of Mary’s presence.”
The miraculous painting of Our Lady of Czesto- A Polish pope
chowa began a pilgrimage through the country and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski’s life of sacrifice and
reached all the parishes in Poland. Faced with this loyalty to God directly contributed to the fall of com-
miraculous image, every believer and every Catholic munism in Poland and other Eastern European coun-
family in Poland was committed to renewing their faith tries, as well as to the election of a Polish Pope on
and moral life. These activities helped save the Polish October 16, 1978: Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Krakow,
nation from complete demoralization and seculariza- his spiritual son and associated with the struggle for u
tion.

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