John Paul II Museum re-opens in Wadowice

From left: Wadowice mayor Ewa Filipiak, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, PM Tusk i culture minister Bogdan Zdrojewski,cut the ribbon opening the New John Paul II Museum: photo - PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk

Also attending the opening ceremony were culture minister Bogdan Zdrojewski and Archbishop of Krakow Stanislaw Dziwisz, a long-time aid to John Paul II until he died on 2 April 2005.

The museum, now with multimedia exhibits, was closed almost four years ago for an extensive refit at a cost of over 6 million euros.

"Pope John Paul II continues to speak to millions of Christians around the world," Stanislaw Dziwisz said at a special mass at the Basilica of St Mary in Wadowice before the official opening ceremony, adding that the Polish Pope's "holiness will be confirmed by Pope Francis in 17 days time".

John Paul II will be made a saint with John XXIII in a double canonization ceremony in the Vatican.

President Komorowski and First Lady Anna at JP II Museum, Wednesday: photo - PAP

Earlier, President Bronislaw Komowoski and First Lady Anna were taken on a tour of the new permanent exhibition in the building where John Paul II, then Karol Wojtyła was born on 18 May 1920 and where he lived till he went to the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in 1938.

Among the new exhibits at the museum is the pistol used by Turk Mehmet Ali Ağca when he tried to assassinate the pontiff in May 1981.

photo - PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk

Before going to Wadowice the presidential couple laid a wreath in the tomb at Wawel Castle in Krakow of President Lech Kaczynski and his late wife Maria, who died alongside 94 others in the Smolensk air disaster, the fourth anniversary of which is on 10 April. (pg)

source: PAP/IAR