Washington, DC
April 9, 2005

Pope John Paul II/Poland Liberation/African Orphans/The United States Conference of Mayors

The eyes of the world are focused on Rome this week as President Bush, Mrs. Bush, former Presidents Bush and Clinton lead America's delegation to pay respect for our nation and bid farewell to Pope John Paul II. In Poland, the home of Pope John Paul II, former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, our Ambassador, is immersed in the grief of that nation and involved in representing all of us during the days following the death of the Holy Father. Mayor Ashe has said this was "a man of the ages" as he knows the history and is now living amongst the Poles who have a deep connection to their Pope John Paul the man so many have called the "father of modern Poland."

It was in the early days of the Solidarity Movement that I, along with other Americans would go to Poland to observe the first municipal elections since 1946. While it was a political event, the spirit of the political movement to topple communism and produce the Democratic elections came from Karol Wojtyla, who at 43, was installed as the Archbishop of Krakow, was consecrated Cardinal at 47, and was elected to be the 264th Pope at age 58.

Young Poles and older political activists in Poland early on were quick to tell me that the Solidarity Movement would not have happened without the catalytic and spiritual force of Pope John Paul. Historians note that the Soviets made one of their biggest mistakes when they allowed the Pope to return to Poland in June of 1979, less than a year after he was elected Pope in October of 1978. After his chants to the people of Poland, "Do not be defeated" in Victory Square in Warsaw, it was in the next year when a young man named Lech Welesa stood on the dock in Gdansk and led the strikes that would form the Solidarity Movement that would lead to free elections in 1989. And what happened in Poland was the first step toward the movement that spread to bring the Berlin Wall down in 1989 and eventually bring down the Soviet Union.

Because of his painful experience of the atrocities of the Nazis in his homeland of Poland and Auschwitz and the three decades of suffering from a Soviet Communist rule, he had a basic tenet inside him that said every person is a child of God and should be allowed to worship the God of their choice anywhere on earth.

Historians also note the bonding between Pope John Paul with our President Reagan. Mrs. Reagan, our former First Lady, who met with the Pope five times, three times alone, pointed out the similarities of her husband, both actors as young men, athletic and fit along with a sense of humor and both with basic firm beliefs that Soviet Communism as they saw it and lived it was to be opposed and defeated. It was President Reagan who recognized the Vatican as a political entity and thus gave the Vatican our first full-fledged Ambassador in 1984 and this diplomatic change ended a 116-year hiatus since 1867. In 1989, the Holy Father received Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989. It was the first papal meeting with a Soviet head of State. Historians also note that later when President Reagan started his famous meetings with Mr. Gorbachev, he consulted with Pope John Paul as to whether he should trust Gorbachev, and the Holy Father "blessed" and encouraged the meetings between the two men and again was a major catalytic force in the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the break up of the Soviet Union.

All the rest is history. So many of us have lived it and historians will prove that the man from Wadowice Poland, born in 1920, would emerge through fate or divine providence to become the first non-Italian to become Pope in four and a half centuries and would be an international player that played a major in changing the political landscape of the globe.

Our organization The United States Conference of Mayors has crossed the paths of John Paul's work.

In 1990 following the municipal elections, Conference President York (PA) Mayor Bill Althaus and I led a delegation to Poland for the purpose of meeting with mayors in Warsaw and Krakow for basic training of how newly-elected officials would work and govern in an atmosphere still clouded due to 30 years of Communist rule. Mayors Ted Mann of Newton (MA), Carol Whiteside of Modesto (CA) and Cardell Cooper of East Orange (NJ) were part of that historic mission.

I had gone there earlier to meet with fledgling city organizations as they struggled to determine the type of organizations best suited for them to come together as elected officials with over 55,000 officials elected on one day, the organization for city officials was a challenge.

In 1990 at our Chicago Annual Meeting of the Conference of Mayors, the democratization and free elections of Poland, was a main topic. In Poland we had worked with Senator Jerzy Regulski, Poland's Undersecretary of State for Local Government Reform. He had authored the first local reform legislation following the Communist rule. He was a champion on this issue and we brought him to Chicago to address our delegates and involve him in a major session of how USA mayors could assist newly-elected mayors in their exciting future.

Through the years there have been exchanges between city officials in both countries. Last September, Conference President Don Plusquellic, Dearborn Mayor Mike Guido and I were in Warsaw hosted by our friend and colleague Ambassador Ashe. The mission last fall centered on economic development and trade plus the Mayor of Warsaw received us and stressed the importance of bringing business to his city, which was getting attention and trade as the world focused on the 60th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. And from Warsaw to Krakow we traveled to see the old ancient City again — but now transformed into a beautiful modern city.

And on every visit to Poland we have traveled to Auschwitz and Birkenau — the Nazi death camp — to witness and learn more about the Nazi atrocities to innocent people Ñ and to pay our respect for the millions who so tragically suffered and died there.

Just last year in May, former President Hempstead Mayor James Garner took our last USCM mission to Rome to thank the Holy Father and Catholic Church for their work to help the thousands of orphans, left from the AIDS pandemic, we had witnessed earlier in our 4-nation HIV/AIDS mission to Africa. Before the ailing Pope received Conference President Garner, we had a substantive meeting and the day before with Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, as he was designated by the Vatican to meet with us, and we pledged our support to continue to work with exchanges, and to jointly express to all the need and the active effort to assist the orphans of Africa.

Our organization, The United States Conference of Mayors, through the Pontiff's catalytic and spiritual actions that energized the liberation of Poland and the help given by the Roman Catholic Church to ease the pain and suffering brought by the pandemic of AIDS in Africa leaving thousands of orphans, we have witnessed, felt and seen the works of John Paul II. I will never forget the young Poles who told me right after the Solidarity movement was born, that they could not have freed Poland without their " Papa." I will always remember what Gary Mayor Scott King said to the nuns and Catholic Charity workers who administered to the dying people of Africa and the orphans. He said, "There will be a special place in Heaven reserved for all of you for what you have done and continue to do every day and every night."

The dogma of the Catholic Church is controversial in our nation. There is confusion among many. And "the culture of life" issues go beyond the Catholic church to bring out the political forces of other churches and religious organizations that emerged in the last two national elections to have a political force that is still being reckoned with and attempted to be understood.

Hence, because of this political confusion sometimes our deep feelings in America about those issues sometimes cloud the feelings that some Americans have about Pope John Paul II.

But we have to conclude that his life and what he personally did to make our world safer and to give millions on this earth more freedom does make him to be, as Ambassador Ashe said, "a man for the ages."