In Rome, Poles show support for an ailing native son

Published: 2005-02-09

ROME (CNS) -- Dominican Father Konrad Hejmo has been leading Polish Catholics to Pope John Paul II since 1984 and saw no reason for the pilgrimages to stop when the pope was hospitalized in February. That explains why seven Polish mountaineers found themselves singing folk songs Feb. 8 under the pope's window at Rome's Gemelli Hospital. Accompanied by Father Hejmo, the troupe sang a song about Karol Wojtyla, the bishop from Krakow who ascended to the papacy. Dressed in traditional Polish wool capes with floral embroidery, they came from the Tatra Mountains, where the pope had hiked as a youth. The mountaineers drove 20 hours in a van from Zakopane, Poland, and when they arrived in Rome, Father Hejmo was there to meet them. When they serenaded the pope from the hospital grounds, they hoped the pontiff might come to the window of his 10th-floor room. When he failed to appear, Father Hejmo took the group's priest, Father Drozdek Miroslaw, to see the pope in his room. Father Miroslaw did not want to talk to reporters about the pope's condition and said he did not exchange any words with the pontiff. Father Hejmo, who is in contact with papal aides but said he has not seen the pope in the hospital, told reporters, "The pope is well and is always praying."

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