Pope Francis to meet Righteous Among the Nations in Poland

Mateusz Szczepaniak, 16 November 2016
The Polish Episcopate Conference Secretariat in Warsaw has announced the detailed schedule for the visit to Poland, in July, of Pope Francis, marking World Youth Days in Kraków. On the itinerary will be a meeting with Poles who have been honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. The Pope will also meet with Holocaust survivors.

Pope Francis will visit Poland between 27th and 31st July 2016 and will take part in World Youth Days, a gathering of Catholic youth initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985. This will be the second time that this event has taken place in Poland.

Apart from meeting young people, Pope Francis will visit, among other places, the Jasna Góra monastery, the children's hospital in Prokocim and the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

The Pope will arrive in Oświęcim on Friday 29th July. He will first tour the Auschwitz I camp where he will pray at the "death wall" and in the cell once occupied by the martyr St.Maksymilian Kolbe. He will also meet with former camp prisoners. He will then go to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where he will lead prayers before the monument commemorating Holocaust victims. Following his address, he will meet with fifteen survivors and twenty five Righteous Among the Nations.

World Youth Days organisers expect that up to one million pilgrims from around the world will arrive in Błonia, near Kraków, to meet the Pope. Many of them will also visit other Polish cities.

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews' travelling exhibition, "The Museum on Wheels", will be open to the public on Krakowskie Przedmieście Street in Warsaw from 21st to 24th July, between 10:00 am and 8:00 pm. This modern exhibition is rich with educational materials telling the story of a thousand years of the history of Polish Jews.

Since 2014, this travelling exhibition has visited cities where, before the War, Jews comprised a significant percentage of the inhabitants. Above all, the travelling Museum is a way of thanking all local organisations and individuals who have devoted their time and resources towards the preservation of the evidence of a Jewish presence in their cities and towns. More information about "The Museum on Wheels”.