MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Poland tomorrow for a four day visit. Benedict will pay homage to his Polish predecessor, John Paul II, and he'll also visit the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The Vatican hopes the visit will encourage Poles to stay close to the Catholic Church as their country integrates with an increasingly secular Europe.
NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Warsaw.
SYLVIA POGGIOLI: The motto of the visit is persevere in faith. And Vatican officials say Benedict will offer a roadmap for the spiritual future of this intensely Catholic country. Church officials believe it's threatened by the process of secularization that has enveloped Western Europe.
In fact, the Vatican is dissatisfied with the direction of united Europe, particularly the EU's refusal to underline the continent's Christian roots in the draft Constitution, as well as by increasing legalization of civil and same-sex unions.
John Allen, Vatican correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter, says the trip to Poland is not just an exercise in John Paul nostalgia.
JOHN ALLEN: First and foremost is the question of Europe and the project of both John Paul and Benedict, to try to reawaken the Christian soul of Europe in the hope that the country's of the former Soviet sphere, which had suffered mightily to preserve the faith, might be able to bring that fidelity back into European public debates.
POGGIOLI: In deference to the pope, Warsaw streets have been cleared of all billboards that could be perceived as offensive. No lingerie or alcohol ads are to be seen. And ads for condoms to prevent AIDS will be banned from TV during the papal masses.
Benedict will be welcomed by a new Polish government that espouses very conservative Catholic positions. It's strongly opposed to abortion and to gay rights and some of its members have described Western Europe as descending into a pagan vortex.
The two most controversial government parties are Self Defense, an agrarian populace party often defined as xenophobic, and the League of Polish Families. This is how Polish political analyst Constantine Gebert describes the League.
CONSTANTINE GEBERT: It's an extreme right wing, Polish nationalist, Catholic fundamentalist movement, the direct heir of Poland's pre-war extreme right, which was authoritarian, anti-Semitic, anti- democratic and Christian fundamentalist.
POGGIOLI: The growing influence of conservative Catholic circles in Polish politics is causing concern. The Vatican has been closely monitoring one of the most popular broadcasters in the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLISH RADIO)
POGGIOLI: Radio Maria is credited with helping to bring the conservative government to power in the last election and government official regularly grant interviews to Radio Maria rather than to other media outlets. But its strident, anti-Semitic broadcasts, including commentaries by Holocaust deniers, drew criticism in a letter last month from the Vatican.
Radio Maria replied by accusing the pope of being biased too positively toward Jews because he's German. Constantine Gebert says that with government support, the radio continues to broadcast its extremist message.
GEBBERT: Radio Maria can thrive only if it sticks to its guns. The question is will the pope lay down the law, and if so, will Radio Maria rebel against the pope?
POGGIOLI: John Allen says that the most important words uttered by the German pope who briefly served with the Hitler Youth will be those he says in the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz.
ALLEN: And not simply because of the broader question of Christian-Jewish relations, but also because in Poland the fear of a kind of reborn anti- Semitism is very much still alive. And I think some carefully chosen papal words can make a difference.
POGGIOLI: Another aspect of this trip is German/Polish reconciliation. Some government members have been fanning nationalist flames. A minister recently compared a planned Russian/German gas pipeline to the infamous 1939 pact in which Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland.
In deference to bitter memories of the German occupation, Benedict will refrain from speaking in German while in public, with one exception, during his visit to Auschwitz.
The Vatican Daily (unintelligible) said after 60 years, the German language will resound again in the camp, not to give death orders, but to raise to God a prayer for peace, reconciliation, love and hope.
Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Warsaw.
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