Polish Bishops to celebrate 26th Pope’s Day

Polish bishops are celebrating the 26th Day of the Pope today, October 11, under the theme "Saint John Paul II: Disciple-Missionary." The annual observance, established by the Polish Episcopal Conference in 2000, takes place on the Sunday before the anniversary of John Paul II's election to the papacy to unite the faithful in prayer for the current pope.

In a message for the occasion, the bishops used the theme to reflect on the connection between being a disciple and a missionary, a concept John Paul II emphasized in his apostolic exhortation *Christifideles Laici*. The bishops noted that this theme recalls a 1979 speech given by John Paul II to seminarians in Częstochowa during his first pilgrimage to Poland. The message emphasizes that being a disciple stems from a personal experience of God's love.