Overinterpretation and manipulation: the controversy over Cardinal Wojtyła in Poland.On April 2, 2023, the eighteenth anniversary of Karol Wojtyla's death, several Polish cities will host marches in the following days
The White March in Krakow followed the same route taken in May 1981 in response to the assassination attempt against John Paul II. In Warsaw, on the other hand, despite the cold and rain, several thousand people demonstrated in the center of the capital, carrying images of the Pope, banners and flags.
The organizers have stressed that this National Papal March was a popular, social and apolitical initiative. Similar demonstrations have been held in other large and small cities.
The marches and the large number of participants are linked to the recent media attacks against Cardinal Karol Wojtyla for allegedly covering up sex crimes. A book and a report on the subject, which recently appeared in Poland, made these claims on the basis of "prefabricated" documents of the communist services attacking the Catholic Church. Historians judge these journalistic materials as lacking in historical value and unreliable. No historian could be found who would rate them positively.
"John Paul II does not need to be defended. It is we who need it to arouse and defend in us the conviction that it is worthwhile to be good, that it is worthwhile to defend the truth about man," stressed Archbishop Emeritus Józef Michalik, who presided at the Mass in the Warsaw Cathedral. Citing the teachings of Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Michalik said that Karol Wojtyla had and continues to have ideological adversaries who still criticize his moral doctrine.
In addition to the demonstrations, liturgies and prayer vigils are being held to commemorate the anniversary of the death of St. John Paul II.
