Poland Mourns National Hero

John Paul II, the first pope from eastern Europe to lead the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics, was a source of pride for a country invaded and dominated for much of the last century by foreign powers and is credited with saving Poland from the Communists and enhancing the influence of the church.

"He was very important for Poland because he was like a road sign pointing the direction to our future," said Krzysztof Cibus, 39, a technician from Krakow in Wadowice Sunday. "He represented us abroad and gave pride and respect. But he was still one of us and at home, he worked to help us be free."

Karol Josef Wojtyla was born in 1920 and grew up in Wadowice with his father after his mother died when he was eight. Even though he moved to Krakow 18 years later, he often visited this town as archbishop and later as cardinal of Krakow and the region.

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As one of leading members of the Polish church, he deftly maneuvered through the tricky politics of an officially atheist nation and built the church up in spite of the communist authorities who saw him as more acceptable than other church leaders who openly challenged them.

That changed when after two decades of sometimes tense negotiations, he convinced the communist regime to allow the construction of a church in the nearby "workers' paradise" suburb of Nowa Huta. The church opened in 1977.

A father of Polish independence

Cardinal Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II in 1978. On his first visit home in 1979, millions of Poles came out to greet him. Many credit him as being a catalyst for the Solidarity trade union movement that emerged soon after his visit. Solidarity challenged the communist regime and helped lay the foundations for its demise.

In honor of his efforts in helping to bring down communism, Polish lawmakers adopted a declaration Tuesday calling him “the greatest authority of our times and the most important of the fathers of Poland’s independence. He helped rebuild Poland’s national identity.”

He is also considered the most influential figure on the Polish Catholic Church in the past century. After the fall of communism and with it the end of official atheism, the church was able to operate openly. John Paul II worked to build up the Catholic Church in Poland, says Jan Grabina, a professor of religious studies at Jagiellonian University.

"The pope deepened religion in Poland by creating theology departments at universities and religious schools all over Poland," he said. "Religious mass media in the form of Catholic TV and radio channels and newspapers started popping up. And with networks of religious youth groups appearing for the first time, he was successful in recruiting young people."

A nation of orphans left behind

But now, the question remains, what will be the impact of his death on the church and society in Poland?

Shortly after Pope John Paul II died, Archbishop Franciszek Macharski of Krakow proclaimed Poland had become "a nation of orphans."

While that statement may seem overly dramatic, many say the pope's death will have a significant impact on the Catholic Church in Poland, just as his life did.

Roman Graczyk who wrote about the church in Poland for almost a decade for the Catholic Weekly, Tygodnik Powszechny and now for the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, says the reaction to the pontiff's death in Poland is different than in western Europe.

"There is a feeling (in the West) that now 'the old guy is dead and here is our chance to change something,'" he said. "The problem here, instead, is that he so overshadowed our local clergy and spoke for them for 26 years, that now they don't know how to do anything for themselves."

Read more about how John Paul II's death will change the future of Poland

Looking towards the West

Despite the pope's popularity, confidence in the church isn't universal in a country that is more than 90 percent Catholic. A 2004 poll by the publicly funded Polish research agency CBOS (The Public Opinion Research Center) found 56 percent of respondents said they trusted the church, 35 percent said they didn't - a slight drop from a 1997 poll that showed 57 percent trusted the church.

That is because people have become increasingly wealthy and worldly as Poland has looked towards the West, first joining NATO and then the EU last year, says Grabina.

Recently, Polish politicians have tried to capitalize on the loosening of the church's hold on the public by calling for legislation to end church subsidies and forcing the church to pay taxes, drawing on public sentiment that the church has too much power and privilege.

Ultimately, the new pope and Polish clergy will have to fill the gap left by John Paul, who especially reached out personally to young people.

Maria Flis, head of the sociology department at Jagiellonian University in Krakow says that he was “crucial to the fall of communism and after as people flocked to him for comfort through the painful transformation (from communism). And for the young, he was the best symbol of freedom. But now, with the church's conservatism, and the increasing tendency of society towards secularism, it will be harder to attract the younger generations to a church without his personal connection and charisma."

End of a generation

Looking at Krakow’s main square full of people this weekend, the pope's influence on the young was obvious, says Szymon Mosiolek, 20 -- it was full of people under 25 years old.

"I am not sure people of my generation would have accepted anyone but this pope," said Mosiolek, a student who plans to attend the pontiff's funeral in Rome. "He affected us tremendously."

Mosotek admits that he didn't follow some church teachings promoted by the pope such as abstinence before marriage. He says it was "too old-fashioned."

"People in Poland have different views on him and some disagreed with him," said Katarzyna Kolinska, 18. "But everyone loved him."

Flis says some drift away from the church in the wake of John Paul's death is to be expected, especially as younger generations grow up without him. "It wouldn't have been such a strong force in our country without him," she said. "So it makes sense that its power will lessen without him."