Pope Benedict XVI in Poland - Day Three

Yesterday, Saturday, May 27, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI visited the birthplace of Pope John Paul ll in Wadowice. Pope Benedict XVI accompanied with Cardinal Dziwisz, the longtime secretary of John Paul ll, visited The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the place of John Paul ll's baptism. Benedict XVI also journeyed to Pope John Paul ll's boyhood home in the city. In Wadowice, the Holy Father spoke to nearly 30,000 people gathered.

Pope Benedict XVI requested prayers for the canonization of John Paul ll: "I wished to stop precisely here, in the place where his faith began and matured, to pray together with all of you that he may soon be elevated to the glory of the altars."

After that stop, Pope Benedict XVI journeyed to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, the shrine that John Paul ll frequently went to pray. He said, "I hope that Providence will soon grant us the beatification and canonization of our beloved Pope John Paul II." Continuing the journey of remembrance, Benedict XVI went to the Divine Mercy shrine a Lagiewniki where he took part in Eucharistic adoration and prayed before the relics of St. Faustina. St. Faustina was the one that received the apparitions of Christ concerning the Divine Mercy of our Lord. The Holy Father then addressed the sick saying they are "...united to the Cross of Christ, but at the same time the most eloquent witnesses to the mercy of God."

Pope Benedict XVI ended Saturday with a meeting with the youth. There, to the nearly 1 million gathered in Krakow's Blonie Park, our Holy Father reminded them not to be discouraged by the people who reject the claims of Jesus Christ. He reminded them that St. Peter faced the same anguish. He reminded them not to join the secular world in viewing Christ "a king of the past."

Sunday he is going to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp in Poland.

Above Photo Source: Petr David Josek, AP

Photos of his visit with the youth:

(REUTERS/Peter Andrews)

(AFP/Vincenzo Pinto)