_{JOHN PAUL’S CITY. Catholicism is central to Krakow, host of World Youth Day 2016, shown at left from on high; above: a statue of the Polish pope and founder of World Youth Day, near Wawel Castle. Alexander Lukatskiy / Shutterstock}

 

George Weigel is the author of Witness to Hope, the definitive biography of Pope John Paul II. What most people don’t know is that Weigel has spent most of July in Krakow for more than 20 years with the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society. I asked him about the changes he has seen in the city over the last two decades and what Pope St. John Paul II might say to the World Youth Day pilgrims who will descend upon the city.

 

You have spent almost a month in Krakow every July for two decades, and you’ve made many other trips to Poland throughout the years. How have you seen the country and the people change during that time?

When I first went there in June 1991, Poland was very gray; a world war, communist “rebuilding” and 45 years of deferred maintenance will do that to a place. Even Krakow, which is now so visually vibrant, was dull and dark. So there has been a tremendous change in the visual cityscape of Krakow and, indeed, in Poland as a whole.

Polish Catholic practice is still remarkably high, by European standards, although there are signs of slippage. I can’t say I’m much impressed by most of the post-Cold War Polish media, which tends to mimic the worst of Western journalism, but Poland today is a stable democracy, and that’s quite an accomplishment.

The challenge, in my view, is to build the robust, evangelically vibrant Catholicism in Poland for which John Paul II hoped. I don’t think Poland is going to replicate the experience of Ireland or Quebec: total Catholic meltdown. But over the next two generations, it might become a kind of Italy — culturally Catholic, but with lax practice; unless the Church grasps that Catholicism by the old ethnic transmission belt, that isn’t going to work anymore. 

 

Do you think, as some have speculated, that it is fair to call Poland the last remnant of Christendom?

I don’t think “Christendom” has existed for a very long time, and I don’t think that much of Poland thinks of itself in those terms. What I hope for Poland as a political community in the next 20 years is that it demonstrates the possibility of a mature democracy being built on an intact Catholic culture: a 21st-century polity in which the dignity of the human person, the common good and solidarity are at the center of public life.  

 

You know many Poles and knew better than most the world’s most famous Pole. What characteristics should pilgrims expect to find in their Polish hosts?

Immense warmth and vitality, a deep devotion to Rome and the papacy and a tradition of hospitality that is quite remarkable.

What do you think Pope St. John Paul II would want pilgrims to take away from their time in Poland, particularly in this city of mercy in the Year of Mercy?

John Paul II’s challenge to pilgrims at World Youth Day 2016 would, I expect, be the same as the challenge he laid down at every World Youth Day he attended: Never, ever settle for less than the spiritual and moral grandeur that the grace of God makes possible in your life. You will fail; we all do. But that’s no reason to lower the bar of expectation. Get up, dust yourself off, seek reconciliation and forgiveness, experience the mercy of God, and try again. But never, ever settle for anything less than being the saint you were baptized to be.

Carrie Gress, a Register blogger,

has a doctorate from

The Catholic University of America. She is the co-author,

with George Weigel, of City of Saints: A Pilgrimage to

John Paul II’s Kraków.

Follow her World Youth Day posts at NCRegister.com.

All Things WYD Via EWTN and the Register

EWTN Global Catholic Network’s live coverage of World Youth Day 2016 airs July 26-31 from Krakow, Poland. EWTN’s in-country team includes Father Mark Mary Cristina of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word; internationally acclaimed author and speaker Chris Stefanick; and “Chastity Project” and Totus Tuus Press founder and speaker Jason Evert. The team will bring viewers the sights and sounds of Krakow.
In addition to EWTN’s television and radio coverage, viewers can tune in via live streaming on EWTN’s website or via EWTN’s free smartphone app. Online, EWTN.com/wyd will provide World Youth Day updates. A special app will give viewers a 360-degree view of various sites around World Youth Day, too.
Also stay up to date via NCRegister.com, where various Register bloggers and writers will cover the latest news from Krakow.

 

Good Music and Speakers

“XLT: Night of Mercy,” with Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, Catholic musicians Matt Maher and Audrey Assad and Life Teen youth speaker Joel Stepanek, on July 27 at Tauron Arena in Krakow.