Vatican City, Apr 28, 2011 / 11:10 am
You don’t have to go far in Rome to know that a Polish invasion is underway.
You can hear Slavic accents on every street corner. There are red and white Polish national flags fluttering in the sun. People are wearing t-shirts and hats emblazoned with image of the country’s most famous son, Pope John Paul II, who will be beatified in St Peter’s Square this weekend.
“I think there will be about 100,000 Polish people here. We know at least 40,000 are arriving with organized groups but there are also lots making their own way here,” Polish radio journalist Dorota Piotrawska tells me in St. Peter’s Square.
“Yesterday I met three men, two of them in their 60s, who’ve walked all the way from Poland just to be here to give thanks for our Pope and for all he gave us. Similarly, I met a young man who’s walked from the town of Bialystok in eastern Poland. That’s over 1600 kilometers (990 miles). When I listen to the stories of Polish pilgrims here in Rome and what they’ve given up just to be here, well, I get very emotional.”