Decision urgent on Polish primate

by Christopher Howse THE POPE'S successor as Archbishop of Cracow, Cardinal Macharski, hinted at the dangerous crisis through which Poland is passing when he stressed this week the urgency of filling the vacancy left by Primate, Cardinal Wyszynski who died last Thursday.
Communist leaders bore witness to the force of the cardinal in maintaining national unity, but they are clearly frightened in these days of outside interference that would put them and their own nation in jeopardy.
The official Polish news agency, PAP. announced Cardinal Wyszynski's death by saying that he was: the prince of the Church, a great Pole and patriot whose beacon was the motto that to know how to unite and not to break apart is the supreme virtue." When the cardinal was born,. Poland was partitioned between the powers of Russia, Austria and Germany. Mr Stanislaw Kania praised at a distance but did not attend the Funeral and burial of Cardinal Wyszynski in the Cathedral of St John in Warsaw. Earlier hundreds of thousands had followed his coffin in the rain.
As Poles watched the funeral on television. thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square in Rome heard the Pope pay tribute to his former primate in a ten minute broadcast from his hospital room.
Archbishop Worlock represented the bishops of England and Wales, as Cardinal Hume had a long-standing engagement to preach at St Mary's, Oxford.
A memorial Mass for Cardinal Wyszynski will be held at Westminster Cathedral on Friday. June 12 at 7 pm, with Cardinal Hume and Bishop Szczepan Wesoly, the delegate of the Primate of Poland for the pastoral care of Poles in exile.
Cardinal Hume, commenting on Cardinal Wyszynski's death said: "On his death he leaves behind a Polish Church in good heart with numerous vocations to the priesthood and an outstanding contribution to missionary work in the third world. Recent events in Poland have shown how the nation responds to his wise guidance,