Pope Leo, Vatican foreign minister recall 60th anniversary of Polish bishops’ reconciliation letter to German bishops
December 11, 2025
» Continue to this story on Dicastery for Communication (Italian)
CWN Editor's Note: At the conclusion of his general audience yesterday, Pope Leo XIV recalled the 60th anniversary of the Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops, written two decades after the conclusion of World War II.
The message “changed the history of Europe,” Pope Leo told Polish-speaking pilgrims. “May the words of that document—‘We forgive and ask forgiveness’—be for the peoples in conflict today a testimony that reconciliation and forgiveness are possible when they are born of a mutual desire for peace and a common commitment, in truth, for the good of humanity.”
The Vatican omitted Pope Leo’s words from its English translation of his remarks.
On December 9, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, marked the anniversary in an Italian-language address at Pontifical Gregorian University.
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