1969: Future Pope John Paul II Visits Cleveland

In September 1969, Pope John Paul II (then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla) left Poland for a 14-city tour in the United States. He chose Cleveland as the first stopover, instead of New York and Chicago, due to Cleveland’s large Polish population.

Wojtyla wanted to thank the large Polish community for its support of the Polish Roman Catholic Church since the end of World War II. 

“When he decided to visit America, he did not go first to New York or Chicago, he came to Cleveland because of the Polish community here. It’s quite an honor for us,” Father Michael Surufka of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church told uCatholic.

St. Stanislaus Church celebrated Mass with Wojtyla and later honored the cardinal at a church hall reception attended by most of the Cleveland Polish community.

In return, Wojtyla gave the church a piece of bone from Saint Stanislaus himself and the mitre he wore as Bishop of Krakow. 

“There are over 12 million (Polish Americans) here and I’ll miss some, but I’m going to thank all of them I can,” said Wojtyla.

The only person not aware of the cardinal’s presence was Robert Kelly, who was running for mayor in 1969 and was on his own tour of giving speeches, or at least trying to.

Already having a scheduling mixup at one location, he headed over to the Alliance of Poles on Broadway Street, where he arrived at an empty hall and was told “everybody” was at St. Stanislaus.

Kelly drove over there, arriving in the middle of mass. He decided not to wait and left for another location, where he also didn't have much luck.

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