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Polish War Memorial Chapel 

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The Pope may have passed from this life, but at Marayong, in Sydney's outer west, the day was still Poland's yesterday.

More than 400 people packed the Polish War Memorial Chapel, Our Lady of Czestochowa, where the Pope attended Mass during his visit to Australia 19 years ago.

"In 1978 we greeted news that the Pope was Polish with incredible joy," said Jolanta Zurawski. "I was here in 1986 and it was the most incredible joy we felt.

"His message was brotherhood, love, peace."

There was sadness, and some of the congregation wept.

Father Krzysztof Chualek, of the Society of Christ, said he had wept himself. The significance of the day had not escaped him.

"The Pope announced that the second Sunday of Easter would be a special Sunday, the Sunday of the Mercy of God and Jesus Christ," Father Chualek said.

"He announced that in 2000 when he canonised Mary MacKillop. That was for the whole Catholic Church. And that is the day he has died."

Father Chualek yesterday quoted from a homily the Pope delivered when consecrating a church at Cracow, near where he was born.

The Pope remarked that he had passed that site during World War II, when, because of shortages, he wore wooden shoes.

The Pope was considered both a religious leader and a Polish patriot.

"We have lost a native son of Poland," Father Chualek said.

Some among the congregation had special memories of the Pope, including Joseph Oseki, 83, who had served with Karol Wojtyla as a teenage member of the wartime Polish underground before being shipped off to Germany as a slave labourer.

Mr Oseki, who came to Australia after the war, had kept in touch with the Pope and met him again in 1986.

Jerzyk Kortynski, who said he had to leave Poland because of his membership of the Solidarity movement, said: "He was part of our life; we grew up under the Pope's influence."

Wieslaw Marciszewski, attending Mass with his wife Anna and two of his three children, were married in Poland in 1984. His mother-in-law to be had written to the Pope asking for a blessing of the marriage.

The Pope had obliged, by letter, which remains framed in the family home.

Bosena Wyrzuc said: "He was a magnificent man, the best man for every nation and every religion."

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