BENEDICT XVI HAILS HEROES OF '56 POZNAN UPRISING

Polish Protest Against
Stalinist Regime Commemorated



VATICAN CITY - Benedict XVI sent a message on the 50th anniversary of the workers' revolt in Poznan, Poland, the first anti-Stalinist insurrection in a Soviet bloc country.

On June 28, 1956, about 100,000 workers protested on the city's streets against the reduction of their salaries, after the bureaucracy refused to negotiate. The demonstration was suppressed brutally, with 58 protesters killed and 700 arrested.

A commemorative ceremony, held last Wednesday in Poznan's Town Council, was attended by the presidents of Poland, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Vatican Radio reported that Benedict XVI sent a message for the occasion, which was read by Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan.

In the letter, the Pope recalled that the peaceful protest of the Polish city, "against the terror and lies" of the Stalinist system, was transformed "spontaneously" into a general insurrection, when forces of the army and police began to shoot the protesters.

The Holy Father said that "the blood shed on the streets of Poznan not only by workers, but also by women, students and children, was not in vain. What is more, it sowed freedom whose fruit was gathered years later, with the fall of the Stalinist system and the nation's full sovereignty."

Finally, Benedict XVI expressed the hope that "the memory of the heroes of the Poznan insurrection will inspire all Poles to build" society "on eternal Christian values, on truth and authentic justice."