Witness to Hope: The Prologue
The Biography of Pope John Paul II
by George Weigel
Feast of the Holy New Martyrs Demetrius & Paul of Tripoli
Anno Domini 2020, May 22
by George Weigel
Feast of the Holy New Martyrs Demetrius & Paul of Tripoli
Anno Domini 2020, May 22
Stealing quietly through Kraków’s blacked-out streets, the audience and the actors who would perform for them arrived at an apartment in the city’s Dębniki district, across the frozen Vistula River from ancient Wawel Castle. It was the 1,181st evening in the long, dark night of the Polish soul, and they took great care to avoid the armed patrols that enforced the Nazi Occupation’s curfew. For what they were doing was an act of defiance that, detected, would have sent everyone involved to the death camps. This particular night, November 28, 1942, the Rhapsodic Theater, an avant-garde troupe committed to a “theater of the living word” without props or elaborate costumes, was performing an adaptation of Adam Mickiewicz’s epic poem Pan Tadeusz, a classic of the Polish Romantic tradition.
The apartment blinds were drawn; the lights were lowered; a clandestine act of cultural resistance began. It did not go unchallenged. During the performance, Nazi megaphones outside began blaring the news of another victory by the invincible Wehrmacht. To some in the audience, that rasping, intrusive propaganda, interrupting a brief respite from the terrors of life in occupied Poland, seemed an apt metaphor for the hopelessness of their situation.
The twenty-two-year-old actor then speaking, an underground seminary student named Karol Wojtyla, paid no attention whatsoever to the racket outside. Unfazed, he continued his recitation as if the harsh static of the principalities and powers of the age simply did not exist…
Almost thirty-seven years later, on June 2, 1979, Karol Wojtyla addressed another audience: the largest gathering to that point in the history of Poland. The former actor no longer spoke in a darkened apartment. Rather, he said what he had to say before 1 million of his countrymen gathered in and around Warsaw’s massive Victory Square. In some respects, though, things were curiously similar. Once again, Karol Wojtyla, now Pope John Paul II, was confronting a brutal attempt to crush human freedom: the communism that had replaced Nazism as usurper of Poland’s liberties. Once again, he was doing so not with what the world recognized as “power,” but with what he understood to be the truth that could set his people free in the deepest sense of freedom: the truth about the dignity, vocation, and destiny of human beings, which he believed had been revealed in Jesus Christ.
And once again, as he spoke, he was interrupted, not by the crudities of Nazi megaphones, but by the spontaneous, rhythmic chant of his people—“We want God! We want God…”
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The Hall of Men will gather Thursday evening on the commemoration of St Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch, Anno Domini 2026, February 12. David Beutel will present on St. John Henry Newman. St. John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was previously an Anglican priest, and after his conversion to Catholicism, became a cardinal. Newman's beatification was proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI on 19 September 2010 during his visit to the United Kingdom. His canonization was officially approved by Pope Francis on 12 February 2019, and took place on 13 October 2019. Come and jo in us for the first toast of 2026 at the Hall of Men! If you haven’t seen a Catholic listen to the life story of John Wesley; if you haven’t watched a Protestant learn about Evagrius of Pontus; and if you haven’t seen Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant men sit around a table together and talk theology until midnight . . . then you need to come to the Hall of Men. When The commemoration of St Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch, Anno Domini 2026, February 12. Where The Ladder at 2836 E. Douglas, Wichita, KS 67214 Schedule Doors Open at 7 pm Food is served at 7:30pm Eighth Day Convocation at 8:30pm Presentation and toast by Derek Hale immediately following Convocation. Membership Required? No, but do consider joining the community! Learn more and join today here .
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