On April 28th and 29th, a meeting of the Administrative Council of the John Paul II Foundation was held in Rome. Through the nomination of members and internal elections, the new Board of the Foundation was constituted. Msgr. Paweł Ptasznik became the Chairman, Msgr. Sławomir Oder became Deputy Chairman and Mr. Marek Markiewicz became Secretary. The members of the Administrative Council are: Wojciech Halarewicz, Henryk Rogowski, Bogdan Chmielewski, priests Michał Wilkosz and Tomasz Szopa. The meeting was attended by Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski, who is the supreme authority of the Foundation, and Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz. Members of the Council represent Church institutions and the Polish community at home and abroad. They bring with them experience of various professions. The task of the Council is to manage the works of the Foundation by passing resolutions.
It is worth emphasising the generational change which took place in the Board of the Foundation. Previously, the function of Chairman was held by Cardinal Władysław Rubin (1981-1990) and Archbishop Szczepan Wesoły (1990-2006), and recently by Cardinal Stanisław Rylko (2006-2022). The current chairman, Fr Paweł Ptasznik, is a representative of the younger generation, which was formed spiritually during the pontificate of John Paul II. It is worth mentioning that he was a close collaborator of the Pope in the years 1996-2005 and for 26 years he held important functions in the Vatican Secretariat of State, whereas Fr Sławomir Oder worked as a lawyer in the Vicariate of Rome for almost thirty years and was a postulator in the process of canonisation of John Paul II.
The current Administrative Council understood, among other things, the proposal to grant the Research and Documentation Centre for the Pontificate of JPII the formal status of an institution of a scientific character. This will contribute to its further development and effective scientific-research work on the legacy of the Polish Pope.
What will remain in my memory from this year’s meeting of the Administrative Council is a personal conversation with Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski about the fact that unresolved or marginalised problems often return with redoubled force. They need to be resolved for the good of the institution. One such unresolved problem is the status of the Centre as an academic unit.
The changes at the helm of the JPII Foundation give rise to expectations and hopes, which will be verified by the passing of time.
Much depends on the methodical work of the Administrative Council headed by its chairman on the one hand, and the directors of the institutions, the staff and the Foundation’s Polish community on the other. The more opportunities there are to exchange ideas, discuss and face problems, the faster and more appropriately they will be solved.
Fr. Andrzej Dobrzyński