Pope Expresses Strong Support for Solidarity

Pope John Paul II spoke out forcefully today in favor of the Solidarity movement, calling on Poland’s communist government to implement its accords with the farmers’ branch of the outlawed independent labor union.

At a Mass before more than 2 million people about 80 miles from the Soviet border, the pontiff spoke of the accords for the first time since he began his visit Monday.

He did not cite Solidarity by name, but referred to the nearby cities of Rzeszow and Ustrzyki, where the agreements were signed by the government in February, 1981, the heyday of the first free labor movement in the Soviet Bloc.

‘Painful Problems’

John Paul said the agreements were an attempt to find a “solution to various painful problems. It would seem that in the present time these agreements should not be passed over in silence, but should find their full realization.”

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro, briefing news reporters, said he estimated that there were 2 million people at the Mass in this southeastern city, among them the primate of Hungary, Archbishop Laszlo Paskai.

Navarro said church representatives from throughout the East Bloc, including the Soviet republics of Estonia and Lithuania, had been invited to the Mass, but the Hungarian prelate was the only one who came.

Navarro said the Pope feels that even though the rural Solidarity movement is outlawed, the agreements reached in 1981 must be carried out.

‘Cannot Remain Silent’

The pontiff, departing from his prepared text, said, “The Pope cannot remain silent on this subject, even if he were not a Polish Pope, and the more so because he is a Pole.” The crowd broke into loud applause.

The agreements obliged the government to stop favoring state-owned farms over private farmers and arranged for more government investment in rural health, educational and social services. The accords also aimed at creating an independent union for private farmers.

An attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to set up an international fund to aid Polish farmers broke down in negotiations with the government last year.

On his second day in southeastern Poland, the pontiff also saluted pilgrims who had come from Czechoslovakia, just 50 miles to the south.

Dozens of Czech and Hungarian pilgrims waved banners greeting the Pope, while several red and white Solidarity banners with their familiar flowing script waved in the breeze.