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“How we love John Paul II” reads Polska The Times’ headline ahead of the beatification ceremony for the late pope on May 1, which may attract only 80,000 visitors from Poland. Compared to the 1.5 million Poles who attended JPII’s funeral in 2005, the low number of pilgrims should be a warning signal for the Polish Church, Polska notes. “It is said that that JPII like Moses led us to the free world, but for the 20-plus generation this does not mean much today”, says the Warsaw daily. According to Father Andrzej Szostek, the media have contributed to superficial reception of JPII and his teachings. On the eve of John Paul II’s beatification, L'Espresso issues a special edition on "the Vatican's secrets", revealing the content of some US diplomatic cables on the Holy see obtained by WikiLeaks. According to the documents, Washington was surprised by the choice of Joseph Ratzinger as Wojtyla's successor and worried by his Nazi youth, but was relieved by the end of the "polish mafia" that surrounded John Paul II. The Roman weekly focuses also on the downsides of the future blessed, dubbed "a great obscurantist".
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