ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO THE MEMBERS
OF THE JOHN PAUL II FOUNDATION

29 October 1998

Your Excellency,
Dear Friends,

I warmly welcome the members of your Foundation on the occasion of your meeting in Rome. Your visit comes shortly after the twentieth anniversary of the election of this son of Poland to the See of Peter, and I take the occasion to thank you for your spiritual closeness during these years. The Foundation was established in order to foster the rich spiritual values which are so much a part of Poland’s millennial Christian culture. I am most grateful for your support of this worthy enterprise and your efforts to ensure its future through the establishment of a perpetual endowment fund.

Strengthening the bond between faith and culture is an essential feature of the Church’s mission, and particularly so in this period leading up to the Third Christian Millennium. The new evangelization calls not only for a renewed appreciation of the great cultural heritage which shaped Poland’s past, but also a personal commitment on the part of all believers to building a modern society inspired by the same profound human and spiritual values. During my last Pastoral Visit to Poland I emphasized that “Upon our perseverance in the faith of our fathers, upon the fervour of our hearts and the openness of our minds depends in fact whether the future generations will be led to Christ by the same testimony of holiness that has been left to us by Saint Adalbert, Saint Stanislaus and Queen Saint Hedwig” (Krakow, Angelus Discourse, 8 June 1997).

Dear friends, I pray that your support of the Foundation will bear abundant fruit for the renewal of Christian life and the advancement of God’s Kingdom. I entrust all of you to our Lady of Czhestochowa, whose familiar face accompanies us on our pilgrim way.

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