Papal plea to regime

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 11

Papal plea to regime

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw Pope John Paul has left his native Poland with a final plea to the authorities to allow workers to enjoy self-respect, leaving the Communist rulers with mixed feelings about his eight-day visit. The Pope flew back to the Vatican from Krakow after a meeting with the former Solidarity union leader, Lech Walesa, and an unscheduled second set of talks with the Prime Minister, General Wojciech Jaruzelski. No details of either meeting were released. In his airport departure speech the Pope called on the authorities to ensure the right conditions for working people, saying that only if they were allowed dignity and self-respect would they really work to develop the country. The Government’s spokesman, Jerzy Urban, asked if the Government considered some of the Pope’s remarks critical of the authorities, said that there had been many positive elements. But he also acknowledged differences of opinion. In an interview with a British television correspondent a senior aide of General Jaruzelski’s said that the Government was angered by the Pope’s expressions of support for the banned Solidarity trade union and for the rights oi workers to organise. Rut the aide, maior

Wieslaw Gornicki, said that other Papal sermons and homilies “were not only welcome but considered as a great contribution to our national consciousness and to our current political problems.” Major Gornicki said that the Pope’s visit could ease the way to abolishing martial law and suggested that it could be done on July 22, Poland’s national day. “I believe that the outcome of the visit facilitates... and speeds up the potential possibility of abolising — not lifting — but abolishing martial law,” he said. An estimated 10 million people, almost a third of the Polish population, attended the Pope’s open-air Masses while millions more watched on television. Thousands of Poles, prevented by large numbers of police from approaching the airport for the Pope’s departure, lined nearby hills and chanted: “Lech Walesa, Lech Walesa.” The security forces, normally quick to intervene with truncheons when a Solidarity banner or chant is raised, made only minor moves during the Pope’s visit. This tolerance will be tested next week when workers in Poznan are expected to march to commemorate scores of people who died when security forces opened fire on demonstrators in 1956.