CNA Staff, Sep 1, 2020 / 02:30 am
The world needs once again to hear St. John Paul II's appeal for an end to war, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz said Tuesday as he marked the anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.
In a statement marking the Nazi invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Dziwisz said that John Paul II's commitment to peace was shaped by his experience of occupation.
"'No more war! It is peace, peace must guide the fate of nations and all humanity' -- these words spoken by St. John Paul II must be repeated also today to the whole world," said the cardinal, who served as the Polish pope's personal secretary.
The future pope was 19 at the time of the Nazi invasion and worked as a laborer in a quarry to avoid deportation to Germany. Around six million Polish citizens died during the war -- roughly a fifth of the population.