Father and Shepherd #15 | The Shepherd’s passing

Family News Service / 30.11.2021

Card. Stefan Wyszyński. Credit - Instytut Prymasowski

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński the Primate of Poland has remained in the memory of Poles as a statesman, defender of faith and freedom of the homeland, advocate of unconditional human dignity.

On 28^th May 1981, Cardinal Wyszyński passed on to God. Before his death, during the sacrament of the sick, on 16^th May he said: “New times will come, they require new lights, new powers, God will give them in His own time. Let us remember that, like Cardinal Hlond, I entrusted everything to the Blessed Mother and I know that she will not be weaker in Poland, even if people change! ”

The Holy Father could not come to his funeral. He sent his representative. It was the Secretary of State, Card. Agostino Casaroli, who presided over the funeral ceremony. The Holy Father has sent a beautiful letter.

The Primate of the Millennium went to God surrounded by great love and reverence for the Church and the nation. From the beginning of May, the cancerous disease was growing rapidly. In the chapel of the Primate’s house, prayers lasted day and night, on 28^th May in the morning at 4.40 a shocking moment – The Primate died. The body was placed in a double coffin and transferred to the church of St. Joseph in Krakowskie Przedmieście.

Since the transfer, thousands of believers had come to pay their last respects to the Primate of the Millennium, called the Father of the Nation. You had to wait in a long line of several hours to pass the coffin in an endless procession. They walked in silence, praying, day and night, from 28^th to 31^st May – that is, until the funeral ceremony at Victory Square (now Piłsudski Square).

The news of the death of Cardinal Wyszyński spread like wildfire all over the world. 1,600 messages and letters of condolence were sent to the Secretariat of the Primate of Poland.

On 31^st May, on the day of the funeral, a funeral procession from the Church of St. Joseph to the Victory Square was led by the delegate of the Holy Father John Paul II, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Cassaroli. Thousands of nuns, about five thousand priests, delegations of universities, chapters, bishops, archbishops, 14 cardinals, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI) joined the funeral procession.

At the funeral of the Primate of the Millennium, in addition to the delegation of the Holy See, delegations from 17 episcopates from various parts of the world, representatives of other churches, representatives of diplomatic missions and Polish diaspora came. Primate Wyszyński’s body was laid, according to his will, in the crypt of St. John’s in Warsaw. In 1987, the coffin with the mortal remains of Cardinal Wyszyński were moved from the crypt to a specially built chapel next to the entrance to the Cathedral.

Thousands of believers still pray at his tomb.

Saint John Paul II, in his letter for the funeral, asked: “Make the figure of the unforgettable Primate, the late Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, his person, his teaching, his role in such a difficult period of our history. Make all of this the subject of meditation and undertake this great and difficult work, the legacy of over a thousand years of history, on which he, Cardinal Stefan, the Primate of Poland, a good shepherd, left a permanent, indelible mark. Let the pastors of the Church undertake this work with the greatest responsibility, let it be undertaken by the clergy, priests, religious families, and the faithful of every age and profession. Let the young take them. May it be taken up by the whole Church and the whole nation. Each one in his own way, just as God and his own conscience show him. Take it and lead it to the future. ”

The beatification process of Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński began at the diocesan stage on 20^th May 1989, and ended on 6^th February 2001. It lasted almost 12 years, with 289 sessions. 59 witnesses were heard. The files in 37 volumes were submitted on 27^th April 2001 to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The Vatican part of the beatification process began on 7^th June 2001 with the official opening of the beatification acts. The decree on the heroic virtues of Cardinal Wyszyński was signed by Pope Francis on 18^th December 2017. On 24^th September 2018, the medical council considered it a miracle that a 19-year-old girl who fell ill with thyroid cancer was healed.

The date of the beatification was set for 7^th June 2020.

Due to the pandemic, it was moved to 12^th September 2021.

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