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My son Piotr and the Pope
Aleksander Smolar Political scientist
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Our son, who today is a mature adult, was born in '74. When the Pope was elected to his pontificate, our son was four years old. And I remember his reaction when he saw the Pope on TV when John Paul II became Pope. And then his first appearance in Polish – I think it was to do with his visit to Poland – and I saw how fascinated Piotrek was, sitting in front of the TV set completely immobile because for him, the Polish language was an esoteric language used only by his family. It was a part of his mum and his dad. There was almost no one else to whom he spoke in Polish. And he believed that it was this 'Swahili' which was only spoken by his parents. And yet suddenly, he was hearing someone else who was talking. He was fascinated by the Pope and watched him, mesmerised, each time he was on TV. I remember when I used to take him to and from nursery – he was an unusually generous child – and he always used to begin his sentences the same way as we walked along, saying, 'When I grow up…' and then he'd say what he'd do for me, what he'd buy to give to me. At that time he said, it's quite a whimsical thing… he said, 'When I grow up, I'll buy you a piece of the Pope'. To be honest, I wanted to tell the Pope about this and I had it ready. I would have told him it on that occasion when he received us. But by then, there was little contact – it was rather formal, a few minutes… we have a photograph in which the Pope is sitting with Krzysztof next to him explaining who I am and so on, while I'm bent over him holding his hands while I'm going on about something, but I didn't tell him about that. In any case, it wouldn't have been very tactful then, but he had a great sense of humour so I think he would have appreciated it.

Nasz syn, który już dzisiaj jest w dojrzałym wieku, w '74 roku się urodził. W każdym razie, jak Papież został Papieżem, to miał cztery lata. I pamiętam jego reakcję, gdy Jan Paweł II został Papieżem. Było to pierwsze wystąpienie Papieza po polsku – chyba z wizytą w Polsce – i widziałem jak Piotrek zafascynowany był, siedział przed tym telewizorem kompletnie sparaliżowany, dlatego że dla niego język polski był językiem ezoterycznym, językiem rodziny tylko. To była część mamy i taty. Z nikim innym nie rozmawiał. I uważał, że to jest po prostu ten swahili, którym rozmawiają rodzice tylko. I nagle usłyszał, że jest ktoś inny. Był zafascynowany Papieżem, za każdym razem, kiedy Papież był w telewizji, oglądał zafascynowany. I pamiętam, jak go do przedszkola odprowadzałem, a jako dziecko był niesłychanie szczodry, miał zawsze ten sam początek zdania gdy szliśmy: „Jak będę dorosły, to...” I wtedy mówił co on dla mnie zrobi i co mi podaruje. I wtedy mi powiedział, to jest dość frywolne: „Jak będę dorosły, to ci kupię kawałek Papieża”. Mówiąc prawdę, chciałem to Papieżowi opowiedzieć, miałem to przygotowane. I opowiedziałbym wtedy, kiedy nas przyjął. Tylko już wtedy ten kontakt był dość formalny, parę minut. Mamy takie zdjęcie, gdzie Papież siedzi, obok niego siedzi Krzysztof, który mu tłumaczy kto jest kim i tak dalej, i ja właśnie pochylony nad Papieżem, trzymając go za ręce, coś tam peroruję. Ale tego nie opowiedziałem. W każdym razie to nie byłoby dość taktowne. Chociaż Papież miał masę poczucia humoru, więc mnie się wydaje, że by to zrozumiał.

Aleksander Smolar (b. 1940) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of the Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation.

Listeners: Vitek Tracz

Vitek Tracz is a London-based entrepreneur who has been involved in science publishing, pharmaceutical information and mobile phone-based navigation.

Tags: nursery, photograph, Pope John Paul II, Piotr Smolar

Duration: 2 minutes, 22 seconds

Date story recorded: September 2017

Date story went live: 20 December 2018