Historic three hours with the pope.
When at the end of 1997 the Polish Episcopate announced a list of places which John Paul II was going to visit, Zamość was not on it. However, on 12 June 1999 the pope paid a visit to Zamość. ” You are welcome to visit Zamość,” Jan Śrutwa, the bishop of the Zamojsko-Lubaczowska Diocese had invited the pope every time he had seen him. And every time the pope replied, “If God permits...”. The pope had an excellent memory and when he was to approve the program of his pilgrimage to Poland in 1999, he looked at the list and asked, “What about Zamość?”
These were historic three hours. 200 thousand believers from the region and all over Poland waited for their pope in Zamość from early morning hours. It was the seventh pilgrimage of the pope to Poland and lasted from 5 till 17 June 1999. The motto of the pilgrimage was “God is Love.”
The pope prayed in the Cathedral, drove across the Renaissance Rynek, has a short meeting with town authorities and blessed a hospital which was named after him. The main service was held in the church of Mother of God Queen of Poland. The pope addressed farmers, emphasising the dignity of their profession and appealing for responsibility for the natural environment. It was in Zamość that he uttered the following words which expressed his longing for the homeland most distinctly: “It is a place where the blue of the sky, the green of forests and fields and the silver of lakes and rivers speak with a unique power. The singing of birds sounds perfectly familiar here, sounds Polish”.
