Forty years ago in Poland St. John Paul II strengthened the courage of his people. He told them that they no longer had to go along with what the party demanded. They could be free, and did not need the permission of the state to live as a free people.
Read MoreThere could be no justice in Europe without a free Poland on the map, and there could be no just accounting of Poland’s identity and mission without including its faith in God.
Read MoreReconciliation is only possible when the aggrieved decide to cease putting grievances — even legitimate ones — in the face of the other
Read MoreMemories are never only about the past. They shape the present. Which is why they need to be respected and honoured. Auschwitz still does that admirably well, despite the missteps of the past year by the Polish government.
Read MoreTrump was full of praise for Poland’s two centuries of courage and fidelity on the front lines of freedom. Very specifically, he identified the key date in recent Polish history as the day that St. John Paul II returned home for the first time:
Read MoreTrump lacks credibility on lived values. Yet he delivered a powerful argument that Western civilization — rooted in certain ideas about God, the human person and liberty — depends upon more than force of arms or a surfeit of material goods to survive.
Read MorePresident Donald Trump was full of praise for Poland’s noble past on Thursday in Warsaw, but his presence here ahead of the G20 in Hamburg, Germany, is an attempt to shape a different European future, where the eastern countries have a larger role.
Read MoreThe recent death of Cardinal Husar of Kiev, and the forthcoming beatification of the first Lithuanian martyr of the Soviet era, remind us of one of the most noble periods in Church history: the great lions of the East, the bishops who were heroic witnesses and pastors under totalitarian persecution.
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