WHEN Poland's Social Democrat President, Mr Aleksand Kwasniewski, was taking his leave of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican last month, the ageing Pontiff caught the Polish President gently by the wrist and said: "When 1 come on my visit next month, you're going to be verb busy and have a lot of problems.
This morning, the 77-year-old Polish Pope sets out on that pastoral visit to Poland. Over the next 11 days, he will take a bittersweet walk down memory lane, visiting a homeland dear to him, but one which appears to have at least partially turned its back on the Catholic faith, as witnessed by the Polish parliament's introduction of abortion legislation following the 1993 electoral triumph of the former communists, now called Social Democrats.
One of the great ironies of contemporary history has been the apparent alacrity with which many Poles in post-communist Poland have been willing to reject fundamental tenets of the Catholic faith, thus delivering a painful slap in the face to the Pontiff himself, whose direct intervention in the late 1970s and early 1980s on behalf of the Solidarity movement did so much to bring about the downfall of communism all over eastern Europe.
Although Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, secretary of the Polish Bishops' Conference, last month suggested that the Pope would not directly intervene in Polish politics, it is difficult to see how he can avoid the political debate. He arrives in Poland in an election year which sees the right-wing opposition parties, led by that same Solidarity, engaged in a bitter struggle to oust the secular-minded Social Democrats.
The Solidarity Election Action (AWS) Party is campaigning on a pledge to ban abortion, thus reversing the liberalisation of the abortion law introduced last year and a promise to ratify a Concordat Treats between Poland and the Vatican. During his trip, the Pope inevitably will speak out against abortion and that in itself already has been interpreted as an electoral boost by the Solidarity AWS which, just to underline the point, has printed large numbers of posters of the Pope, prominently stamped with its own logo.
Aside from political considerations, however, this visit will clearly have a poignant and personal dimension for the Pope. Senior Curia figures are the first to acknowledge that every time he visits his native land, he knows it may be his last.
This visit, too, will provide a daunting test of stamina for the Pope. His itinerary takes in 14 towns and nearly 50 public meetings, as well as many private encounters.
He has not embarked on such a long visit since his 1991 pastoral visit to Brazil. In a Vatican news conference this week, Bishop Pieronek acknowledged the challenge the visit represents for the Pope's health, saying: "Certainly it will be more difficult than five or 10 years ago but what can you expect from a man who still works hard and is 77 years old?"
Perhaps the most poignant moments of the trip may come towards the end of next week when the Pope will visit Cracow, the city in which he lived for part of the second World War with his widowed father and the city of which he was later to become both Bishop and Cardinal, prior to his election as Pope in 1978. On Monday, he is due to visit his parents' grave in Cracow as well as Cracow Cathedral.
During his visit, the Pope is also scheduled to visit the shrine of Czestochowa, where he will again give thanks to the Virgin Mary for having saved his life, as he believes, during the assassination attempt in St Peter's Square in 1981 by the Turkish gunman, Ali Agca. Next week, too, the Pope will meet the heads of state of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Lithuania and Germany on the occasion of the 1,000th anniversary of the eastern European martyr, St Adalbert.