Yesterday was the 45th anniversary of John Paul II’s first return to his homeland as pope. I was back in Poland on a two-week tourist visa, after more or less being expelled from the country four months earlier, and Hania and I watched the pope’s motorcade as it arrived in Warsaw and, later that day, attended the mass on Victory Square. A religious service on the main square of the capital of a socialist country was unprecedented, historic, and, of course, much more than religious. It was obvious, as people listened intently to their pope’s homily, who the real leader of Poland was. And, surrounded by thousands of their like-minded citizens, they had irrefutable proof that they made up a powerful majority.
