POLAND: Before Vatican officials, top Polish politicians and a congregation of 80,000 people, the long-time personal secretary of pope John Paul II has been installed as archbishop of Krakow, the role that Karol Wojtyla fulfilled before he became pontiff.
Some 800 priests attended Saturday's ceremony at Krakow's majestic Wawel Cathedral, where Stanislaw Dziwisz took office and solemnly vowed to continue the work of John Paul, for whom he worked from 1966 until his death in April.
"Twenty-seven years ago I travelled with the then archbishop of Krakow, cardinal Karol Wojtyla, to Rome," he told a vast congregation gathered later for Mass on Krakow's main square. "Today I am deeply convinced that, from the height of heaven, he brought me back to Krakow," he added, wearing the mitre and ornate white-and-golden robe familiar from John Paul's visit to Krakow in 1999.
In front of outgoing Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, Archbishop Dziwisz immediately echoed his predecessor's conservative stance on matters of family and sexuality.
"The church speaks of a family as a union of a man and a woman based on true love," he said. "This type of family is a natural aspect of human life and cannot be replaced by any other union."
