On September 12, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński will be beatified in Warsaw, Poland.
A close friend of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Wyszyński is considered a national hero in Poland for resisting the country's totalitarian communist regime which imprisoned him for three years.
He is remembered for organizing large-scale devotional events in the face of the Polish government, such as carrying out a pilgrimage of an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa throughout the country.
CARD. KAZIMIERZ NYCZ
Archbishop of Warsaw (Poland)
“Even when the communists arrested this painting, so to speak, that is they seized it and locked it in a warehouse, the pilgrimage went on with only the painting's frame: to symbolize Mary locked up by the communists. He continued to organize these pastoral events even during the three years he was imprisoned.”
Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz succeeds Cardinal Wyszyński as Archbishop of Warsaw. He says Cardinal Wyszyński helped a young Karol Wojtyła advance in the Church hierarchy in Poland, and played an influential role in the conclave which made him Pope John Paul II.
CARD. KAZIMIERZ NYCZ
Archbishop of Warsaw (Poland)
'It is as the Pope said in 1978, that there would not have been a Polish pope without Cardinal Wyszyński, without his faith and without his strength.'
Likewise we can say Wyszyński would not have been as successful had he not had Wojtyła not been by his side for over 15 years. Their relationship benefited both the Church and Poland.
Pope Francis officially recognized Cardinal Wyszyński's heroic virtues in 2017. Now his beatification will serve as an important reminder of courage and faith overcoming persecution.
CARD. KAZIMIERZ NYCZ
Archbishop of Warsaw (Poland)
“Now every country in the world is in need of certain figures like Wyszyński, of important people who comfort us and who can give us an example of how to live, like the saints of the Catholic Church.”
More than 30 years after the fall of communism in Poland, one of the country's anti-communist champions will be declared a Blessed. Only after confirmation of a second miracle will Card. Wyszyński be canonized in St. Peter's Square.
JM
