POPE MAY PASS IRON CURTAIN

FIRST he visited the Holy Land. Then it was India and America. He was given an invitation to come to Britain. Now preliminary moves are being made for Pope Paul to go behind the Iron Curtain— to Poland.
President Saragat of Italy has been discussing with Polish leaders in Warsaw the possibility of the Pope making a visit to mark the celebration of 1,000 years of Catholicism in Poland.
Although Poland Is now officially an atheist country, it is believed the Pope will be made welcome by the Government, whose relations with the Church have thawed noticeably since the dialogue between Rome and Moscow has been stepped up.
A recent sign of this thaw is that the Polish Government has now granted passports to two bishops from whom it originally withheld permission to attend the Vatican Council—Bishop Ablewicz of Tarnow and his auxiliary, Bishop Pekala.
Bishop Ahlewicz, who had been allowed to attend earlier sessions, has been an outspoken critic of the Government's treatment of the Church. More than 30 bishops from Poland have been granted passports to attend the Council.
APOSTATE DROPPED
The Warsaw regime has removed another irritant to the Catholic Church by dropping its support for an apostate priest who had made himself a bishop of the "National Church" of Poland.
The former priest, Maksymilyan Rode, joined the Polish "National Church" in 1956 and was consecrated by an Old Catholic bishop in Holland in 1959.
Automatically excommunicated at the time of his apostacy, he was formally excommunicated by Cardinal Wyszynski in 1961 for marrying.
The Polish Government supported Rode, apparently in the hope that his movement would weaken the Catholic Church by attracting other priests. But reports from Berlin say that only five other discontened priests have joined his sect.
GROMYKO MAY CALL Meanwhile, in Moscow itself, there is speculation that the Soviet Foreign Minister. Mr. Gromyko, will call on the Pope if he visits Italy in January.
If Mr. Gromyko asks to see the Pope, it is pointed out at the Vatican, this will in itself be an extremely significant step, since no member of the Soviet Government has asked to be received by a Pope since 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution.
It won't be the first RomeMoscow contact, however, as this was made "unofficially" by Mr. Khrushchey's son in law and daughter with Pope John. The former editor of Izvestia and his wife visited the Vatican in such a way as almost to "camouflage" what was regarded then as an exceptional occurrence.
The way now seems clearer and easier for a visit by the Soviet Foreign Minister because relations with the Kremlin have improved remarkably. In fact, while in New York Pope Paul stopped for a particularly long time to talk cordially to Mr. Gromyko.