Topics of coins
50th Anniversary of the Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops
At the end of the Second Vatican Council,
on 18 November 1965, Polish bishops addressed
a letter of reconciliation to German bishops,
with its essence summarized by the words: “We
forgive and ask for forgiveness”. Even though
written 20 years after the end of World War II
and the shifting of the borders of numerous
countries (including Poland and Germany),
the letter was an act of courage and wisdom
since not all the newly demarcated borders
had been officially approved by the countries
neighbouring on each other.
The message of the Polish bishops’ letter, which
was initiated by Cardinal Bolesław Kominek,
Archbishop of Wrocław, laid the groundwork
for the restoration of political relations between
the countries that were the worst affected by
the Second World War, and for dialogue to
commence.
The letter was most unfavourably received by
the then Communist authorities of Poland.
However, the normalization process began.
Five years later, the government of the Federal
Republic of Germany approved the western
border of Poland.
The reverse of the coin commemorating
the pastoral letter of Polish bishops to their
German counterparts features the images
of three outstanding figures in the post-war
history of the Church and Poland: Cardinal
Bolesław Kominek – the originator of the letter,
Cardinal Karol Wojtyła – subsequently the Pope,
now canonised – who contributed to the fall of the
Communist regime, and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński,
the head of the Church in Poland, the Primate
of the Millennium. It also bears an inscription in
remembrance of the event.
The obversee features a fragment of the letter
with the historic words – “we forgive and ask for
forgiveness” – in bold type, along with the Polish
national emblem and the issue date of the coin.
Rev. Czesław Mazur