World youth day - Częstochowa, Poland

World youth day - does anyone plan have plans to visit Częstochowa and welcome Pope there ? Greetings !

I'm not Catholic (nor even Polish!), but I think right here in New Jersey, Polish-Americans are making their own pilgrimage to an American shrine of their own:-)

Not entirely related to your friendly post, but thought I'd pass along the info anyhow.

DOBREJ ZABAWY!!

peterpoland - yeah, I am and I wish you luck with it as well, more pilgrimages like this one are now important.

Hahaha, nice username

World Youth Day with Pope Francis is a great spiritual adventure for hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from around the globe. The sight of so many clean-cut youths and the amount of Christian joy, optimism, enthusiasm and exuberance they exude is downright amazing. And it stands in marked contrast to libertine meet-ups such as Owsiak's Woodstock debacle focusing on instant gratification -- beer, grass and fornication -- not to mention vandalism to the train coaches that brought participants to the scene.


During one of his daily Papal Window chats Pope Francis said the secret of a happy marriage boiled down to three expressions: please, thank you and sorry. "Misunderstandings will occur, and sometimes even dishes go flying. But the main thing is to make up before the day is out. There should be no cold war of silence," he emphasized.

An ocean of youthful humanity stretched as far as the eye could see in the village of Brzegi, some seven miles from Kraków, the venue of a prayer vigil held in on the eve of Pope Francis' departure. There the Holy Father warned against becoming a 20-some-year-old retiree, a couch potato whose life revolves round the Internet and computer games.

Several young people came forth to share their experiences. A Brazilian said he had cut himself off from his family during 16 years of drug addiction and came clean only thanks to his religious faith. A young Polish woman said had a good career and loads of fun with good-looking males, until one day she woke up and realized the emptiness of her life. Something pushed her to go to confession for the first time in years, giving her a new lease of life.

Pope Francis took but another major step in trying to heal the deep wounds between Catholics and Jews by making that difficult pilgrimage to Oświęcim aka Auschwitz-Birkenau in order to stop and meet with both Christian and Jewish survivors:-)

Hats off to you, your Holiness!

He became the third Supreme Pontiff to do so. The most dramatic was Benedict XVI's visit because of his nationality and brief membership of the Hitlerjugend.

There are deep wounds between Catholics and Jews?
Funny, I've never heard of a Catholic-Jewish war

Then you don't know your own history, smurfLOL

That's probably because there isn't a history of anti-Semitism in Catholic Ireland so Smurf wouldn't have been brought up to bear any ill will towards Jews. The Jewish community was relatively small but there have been Jews in Ireland since the 11th century. At one time there were eleven Kosher butchers in Dublin! Apart from one trade war type thing in Limerick I think about a hundred years ago, when Jewish businesses were boycotted, there was never any real anti-Jewish feeling and that was really a commercial thing, not religious. I think Irish Catholics are often unaware of the 'bigger' issues because of being a small island on the edge of Europe.

Quite correct, Atch, right on the money!

I myself can think of less than handfull of prominent Irish Jews who even identified with both their Erse as well as their Jewish heritage, moreover, were almost completely assimilated into Irish culture, namely, Lord Mayor Robert Briscoe and Fred Rosedale, the latter being the sitting head of Ireland's Jewish community:-) Both were full Jews and to my knowledge, Lord Mayor Briscoe never converted!

I'm sure there're more, but these are the only two I know off the top of my head.

Back on topic please

We could use some of that in the USA where the N-words have declared open season on cops.

Seriously? Ok, I thought you are just some old bitter twisted man who got into being too righteous for his own good but you are just an a**. And then mods are surprised ppl call for your suspension...

I'm all for cheering to the police. Atch may be interested to look for the video of Irish football fans singing for Polish cop during Euro in Poland.

Off topic Polonius, but I believe it was we W- ies who started the "season" long before there was a local police force:-)

Back to topic, his Holiness' presence adds spiritual luster and earthy humanity to EVERY celebration! That he should feel more alive speaking to the world's youth is scarcely surprising in that good works and kind deeds keep all of us young.

The truth hurts. People who have fallen for PC muzzling and taboos hook, line and sinker do not like someone calling a spade a spade and feel comfy only in their fairyland utopia.

What hurts even more, MUCH more, is reading attitudes posted such as yours which have forgotten the original meaning of "pc",and, as Francis said, have become like couch potatoes, too concerned with comfort than with righteousness!!

The "truth"??? I beg to differ.

Oh Jaysus yea, I forgot about the Great Irish-Jewish Wars of the 1400 and 1600s.

Of man how could I forget about that?
Like 27 hundred million people died and something like 14 billion horses were killed too.
Indeed it was in the second Irish-Jewish war that leprechauns were hunted down by the Jewish invaders and were exterminated.


with a can of VIP lager in one hand and something else in the other :D :D :D


That's nice though, the cops were probably bored off their faces for the whole event so nice that some people showed their appreciation.
Sure, us lot did the same in FRance a few weeks ago

Stand Up for the French Police!
youtube.com/watch?v=UdQrNFza0Q4


He was talking about gobdaws like you. Sad, lonely keyboard warriors

At his first post-WYD general audience, Pope Francis held Poland up as a model for emulation. He expressed gratitude for the great way WYD were organised and added:

"Poland, with its rich cultural and spiritual heritage today reminds us that Europe has no future apart from its founding values, centred on the Christian vision of man and including the message of mercy expressed so eloquently in the last century by Saints John Paul and Faustina Kowalska."

The Kodists must be fuming because they had hoped the Pope would lambast Poland for using fossil fuels, not receving 3rd world refugees and migrants and maybe even lecture the government on the KOD version of democracy.

Who are KODists? It seems everyone is slowly forgetting about them in Poland except you...

And its 24 hour alcohol shops, sex shops and video booths where it's openly advertised that you can view porn at any time of the day, hardcore porn mags displayed at childrens' eye level in kiosks, contraceptives displayed in supermarkets at children's eye level, brothels clearly visible, divorce available at the drop of a hat, no culture of volunteering or helping others and no sign of this newly prosperous society developing such a culture either. Yes a great example of Catholic values. I wouldn't like to see it emulated in my homeland I can tell you.

My impression is that couples seeking a divorce have to go through several steps including a reconciliaton period. The reason being the hope that maybe the couple will reconsider, think of the kids and give it another go.


This Polish Radio blurb may be of interest. Many WYD pilgrims decided to tour Poland after the end of the youth festial. Amongst them were Seamus, Karen and Ciaron, members of a large Irish group, who were "overwhelmed by the generosity of the Polish people" who opened their homes to them.

A visit to the former German concentration camp of Auschwitz was among their most profound memories.
"The mystery of suffering is something I will contemplate for the next few years," Ciaron Broadberry told Polish Radio during a stop-over in Warsaw.

Hi Atch and Polly, I have just found a good illustration of your points (cultural and spiritual heritage of Poland):



Could any good soul translate the message of the Polish kiosk into English?

Couldn't you do that yourself Ziemusz? Is it something about somebody getting a refund on some porno mag he bought? I don't really want to copy and paste it into Google Translate, though I imagine the results would be fairly mirth provoking seeing as Google translates Pan as 'the Lord'!!


Hospitality is not unique to Poland though Polly. Not denying for one moment how generous Polish people can be in that respect but I had a friend who visited Cuba and was equally overwhelmed by the generosity of her hosts who were really very poor people. Also you must bear in mind the people you're referring to are all practising Catholics who are hosting each other for a major Church event.

But it's the attitudes which prevail in society that count. Without having a go at anyone, I really think that young people in Poland are not being taught about caring for the welfare of others. I don't think it's part of the ethos of the education system. I think the legacy of Communism is still there, the state will provide, it's not your business, but it is your business and people need to learn that and they need to learn it from their earliest childhood. It's not about money, it's about awareness of the needs of others and about compassion and reaching a hand of friendship and human warmth out to the elderly, the poor, the lonely.

A man stole a porno mag ("Sexual Acrobatics") worth 14.99, so the lady of the kiosk demands now that he return it or pay for it, otherwise she will stick the pictures of him all around her shop (this will happen on Monday) so as the people living in the neighbourhood would know what the "hobby" of this chap is (the owner is in possession of the video monitoring tape).

No Polly that's not so. There's no requirement for an official reconcilliation period. There's the usual steps of filing various papers and one party can hold up the process considerably if they want to be awkward by not filing their bits but about six months for the whole process is quite common.


Thank you Ziemusz. You see what a good translator you are?! Class stuff. It's like something from Alternatywy 4 :))

Pope Francis slammed gender as a form of "true ideological colonisation". "The area of its influence is not only Europe and America but also Africa and Latin America. One of its elements is gender," Pope Francis said. "Today school children are taught that everyone can select their own gender. And why are they taught that? Because textbooks are imposed by those people and institutions that give money. That is true ideological colonisation also supported by very influential countries and that is horrible."

fakt.pl/wydarzenia/polityka/papiez-franciszek-o-gender-bardzo-ostro/56ysjcy

.....said by a man wearing a dress

A knowledge of irony isn't one of Frankie's strongest characteristics

Perhaps an unmarried man who wears a dress and leads one of the most sexist organizations on the planet isn't the best person to listen to when it comes to such matters.

Rather than trying to ridicule and deride the widely respected Holy Father, maybe you could give us your definition of the gender issue. Feminists insist that every piece of legislation should be viewed through the gender prism. Why is that?