- Title: POLAND/CZECH REPUBLIC: PRAYERS FOR AILING POPE JOHN PAUL II.
- Date: 1st April 2005
- Summary: (BN08) KRAKOW, POLAND (APRIL 1, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. GV: OLD TOWN SQUARE 0.05 2. MV: PEOPLE ARRIVING AT CHURCH 0.07 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) WOMAN HOLDING BABY ARRIVING AT CHURCH SAYING: "I feel very sad, I have come here to pray, that's all I can do." 0.17 4. MV: MAN AND WOMAN IN FRONT OF CHURCH 0.21 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMAN, KRAKOW RESIDENT SAYING: "It is a shock, you know he is ailing, he is sick but it doesn't seem (like) it's that bad and you do not want to think that it is going to come to an end ... as a Polish person especially." 0.36 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAN, KRAKOW RESIDENT SAYING: "He has been a pope for so many years and it is hard to imagine him not being around any more. Ever since I have been alive he has been the Pope. It is difficult, it is very sad." 0.4 7. MV/PAN/TRACK: MAN AND WOMAN ENTERING CHURCH 0.52 8. MV/CU: PEOPLE INSIDE CHURCH PRAYING (3 SHOTS) 1.15 (W3) ZAKOPANE, POLAND (APRIL 1, 2005) (REUTERS) 9. MV: PRIEST AT SPECIAL MASS 1.25 10. VARIOUS: LOCAL RESIDENTS DRESSED IN NATIONAL COSTUMES PRAYING, SINGING; BAND PLAYING IN CHURCH; PEOPLE PRAYING; FEMALE CHOIR SINGING OUTSIDE CHURCH (10 SHOTS) 2.30 11. (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) LOCAL RESIDENT SAYING: "It is difficult to talk about it, what I would really like to say is to wish him to live to be a hundred but, at this moment, all we can do, the people here, all the highlanders, is to pray." 2.51 12. (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) LOCAL RESIDENT WHO HAD MET POPE AT AN AUDIENCE SAYING: "I remember the Holy Father radiating with goodness and with with joy. And that's what I want to remember about him, the goodness." 3.00 13. MV/CU: SANCTUARY'S MUSEUM; PRIEST SHOWING POPE'S SKIS; POPE'S SKIS, BOOTS AND SKIING JACKET (2 SHOTS) 3.31 (W3) PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (APRIL 1, 2005) (REUTERS) 14. GV: VIEW ACROSS CITY SKYLINE (2 SHOTS) 3.40 15. MV: FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT LECH WALESA ENTERING ROOM AND SITTING DOWN 3.47 23. (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) WALESA SAYING: "Only time will tell whether it will be you, me or the Holy Father to be the first to leave this earth. As a believer, a religious man, I trust God and I still have hope that the Pope will get better and will serve us longer." REPORTER ASKING WHAT THE POPE'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT WAS, WALESA SAYING: "I am a believer, a man of religion and looking at him from this point of view I see him as a modern Peter, the Saint Peter of our times. From a different perspective, he influenced other areas of life, had it not been for him there would still be communism, communism would have lasted much longer and so would have our problems. He created hope, he woke up the people, the people took up the struggle and we have a free world now." 4.43 16. MV/PAN: WALESA SHAKING HANDS WITH REPORTER AND WALKING OUT OF ROOM 5.02 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 16th April 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KRAKOW AND ZAKOPANE, POLAND/ PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
- Country: Poland
- Reuters ID: LVAAP8DAWCQZCDPV0OOF32W98HJE
- Story Text: Poles stream into churches on Friday to pray for
Pope John Paul II.
Hundreds of people crowded churches in Poland on
Friday (April 1) to pray for Pope John Paul, clinging to
the hope their beloved countryman will step back from the
brink of death.
Churches in the capital Warsaw and the southern city of
Krakow where Wojtyla was archbishop before becoming Pope in
1978 filled with worshippers from the early hours.
"I feel very sad, I have come here to pray, that's all
I can do," a young woman carrying a baby said as she
arrived to attend mass at one of Krakow's churches.
Many Poles left work for a few minutes to pray for the
man many see as their spiritual father and someone who has
always been present in their lives.
"He has been a pope for so many years and it is hard to
imagine him not being around any more. Ever since I have
been alive he has been the Pope. It is difficult, it is
very sad, " a Krakow resident in his mid twenties said.
In the southern Tatra mountains, where the young Pope
used to ski and made countless friends among devout
highlanders, hundreds took part in a special service held
at a Sanctuary of the Holy Mother of God in Zakopane. The
Sanctuary, originally built by the local people to mark the
Pope's recovery after the assassination attempt, now houses
a small museum devoted to him and the time he had spent in
the region. The exhibits include skis, boots and a ski
jacket the Pope wore during his skiing trips there.
The 84-year-old Pope is revered in overwhelmingly
Catholic Poland. His first return visit to the then
communist Poland as Pope in 1979 drew millions of people on
to the streets.
His sermons inspired them to challenge their communist
rulers and was a major factor behind the birth a year later
of the Solidarity movement, which won power after a decade
of struggle and hastened the collapse of the whole Soviet
bloc.
Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, who became Poland's
first non-communist president in 1990, said the Pope's
death would be a blow to Poland and the world but said he
still hoped the Holy Father will step back from the brink
of death.
"Only time will tell whether it will be you, me or the
Holy Father to be the first to leave this earth. As a
believer, a religious man I trust God and I still have hope
that the Pope will get better and will serve us longer," he
told Reuters.
For most Poles, the Pope has been the ultimate moral
authority during the past 15 years of harsh reforms and
often painful transformation from communism into a Western
democracy.
He drew millions each time he visited his homeland,
urging his countrymen not to forget compassion and moral
values in their pursuit of material wealth.
He also urged many sceptical Poles not to shun Europe.
His voice helped silence the radical Catholic right's
opposition to Poland's European Union entry just days
before the 2003 referendum on whether to join the bloc.
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