Poles hope new Pope will help Polish-German ties
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-20 20:45

Polish church and political leaders appealed on Wednesday to their countrymen to embrace the new Pope and see the choice of Germany's Joseph Ratzinger as a chance for further Polish-German reconciliation.

Commentators and ordinary Poles welcomed the election of Pope Benedict XVI, one of late Pope John Paul's closest aides, as a guarantee that the Catholic Church will stay the course set by their great countryman.

They also see the election of a German Pope as a chance for the two neighbours to overcome historic wounds.

"The election of a German Pope is a tremendous challenge for Poles. Just as it was initially hard for the Germans to warm up to a Polish Pope, now Poles will have to embrace a German Pope," Archbishop Stanislaw Gradecki told PAP news agency.

He said he was convinced Poles would embrace the new Pope with the same love they had for their countryman John Paul and several church leaders said Ratzinger was a friend of Poland.

"The Pope is the head of universal church, but in this case he is also a German and this should make us realise that, despite all the historic burden, we are neighbours and in today's world we should be good neighbours," Parliament Speaker and former foreign minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said.

The two nations have come a long way since the 1960s when Catholic bishops in then West Germany and communist Poland made a first historic step and issued a joint letter calling for reconciliation between the two nations.

Berlin was the main champion of Poland's European Union ambitions and mutual political and economic ties have strengthened since the fall of communism in 1989.

But a recent spat over German claims over property seized in World War Two has exposed undercurrent distrust and sensitivities on both sides.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski also stressed the new Pope's role in fostering Polish-German ties.

"We express today joy that the mission of building a world of peace, solidarity and love, which was the guiding principle of John Paul II's Pontificate, including the reconciliation between the Polish and German nations, found in Pope Benedict XVI a worthy successor," Kwasniewski wrote in a congratulatory letter to his German counterpart Horst Koehler.

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