Participants

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*Dr Elżbieta Adamiak*
||Theologian, lecturer at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Graduate of theology at the Catholic University of Lublin. Her research interests comprise feminist theology, Mariology and ecumenism. She published a work „Błogosławiona między niewiastami. Maryja w feministycznej teologii Cathariny Halkes” [Blessed Among Women. St. Mary in Cathrine Halkes’ Feminist Theology] (1997), and a series of articles on Mariology, the position of the woman in the Church, feminist theology and ecumenism in Catholic monthlies, e.g. „Więź” and „W drodze”.

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*Archbishop Jeremiasz Anchimiuk*
President of the Polish Ecumenical Council. Archbishop of the Wrocław-Szczecin Diocese of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Biblical scholar from the Christian Academy of Theology, its former President. Holder of a postdoctoral degree in theology. Head of the Chair of the Orthodox Exegesis of the New Testament of the Christian Academy of Theology. Distinguished ecumenist. Vice-president of the Commission for Dialogue between the Conference of the Polish Episcopate and the Polish Ecumenical Council. Member of the interdenominational team of translators who prepared an ecumenical translation of e.g. three Gospels: according to Mark, John and Luke.

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*Dr Leo Andringa*
||Economist and former regional director at the Central Bank of the Netherlands (67), represents the “Economy of Communion” project of the Focolare movement.
Since 2002 member of the newly created International Secretary “Movement for an Economy of Communion” with its center in Grottaferrata, Italy. One of its tasks is to coordinate and stimulate the development of the enterprises of the Economy of Communion, now more than 750, and to further the development of economic theory based on this experience. This economic experience started by Chiara Lubich in 1991 in Brazil and is based on the Christian life of the “communion of goods” (Acts 4,32). These entrepreneurs give one third of their profits to the poor; another part is destined for the education in the gospel’s “culture of giving” as an alternative to the consumer culture of having. The third part of the profit is for the continuity of the company.
As member of this secretary he participated in an Expert meeting of the United Nations on Corporate Social Responsibility to produce a report for ECOSOC, the Economic and Social Counsel of the UN (2002) and made many trips to several continents to present the experience of the economy of communion.
He participated in the working group of the World Council of Churches in Geneva and The Netherlands to prepare a European conference of the WCC together with the Catholic Church in The Netherlands on the International Financial System.
As secretary of the Focolaremovement in the Netherlands he is member of a group that is building a small “Focolaretown” in the Netherlands. These are real, tiny little towns made up of houses, schools, small factories and workshops. The evangelical law of reciprocal love is practiced by all those living there; as a consequence there is a great communion of cultures, of spiritual as well as material goods among everyone. At present, these “little towns” are more than 30 in all continents. He married his wife Anneke; they have 5 children and 3 grandchildren.

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*Kiko Argüello, Carmen Hernandez*
Founders of the Neocatechumenal Way (in 1964). Kiko, a Spanish painter, called by God, renounced his career to live among the poor. Along with Carmen Hernandez (a chemistry major with a licentiate in theology) they began to preach the Good News to the people they lived among. Their teaching was concretised in the catechetical synthesis based on the tripod: “Word of God – Liturgy – Community”, which, implemented within a parish, endeavours to lead people to fraternal communion and to mature faith.
In 2002, the Holy See approved the statute of the Neocatechumenal Way. This approval formalises and makes more precise the act of recognition made as early as 1990 by pope John Paul II in a letter to Bishop Paul J. Cordes AAS 82(1990), 1513-1515. Then the Pope had recognised the Neocatechumenal Way as an “itinerary of Catholic formation valid for our society and contemporary times”.
The Way is recommended to bishops as a way of implementing Christian initiation in dioceses, parishes, small communities, and for the opening of missionary pastoral work. The Way is a set of 4 spiritual goods: post-baptismal catechumenate, which is to help baptised people in the discovery of the wealth of their baptism; permanent formation of faith; catechumenate for unbaptised people; catechetical service.
The founders of the Neocatechumanal Way, Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernandez along with Fr. Mario Pezzi constitute an International Team in Charge of the Neocatechumenal Way.
There are 18,000 communities worldwide (each with around 40 members) in around 850 dioceses in 105 countries on 5 continents. In Poland, the Way commenced its activity in 1975 thanks to Fr. Alfred Cholewiński SJ, and currently numbers around 1,000 communities in 350 parishes in 35 dioceses.

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*Danuta Baszkowska*
||Vice-president of the Council of St. Adalbert’s Forum. Member of the Warsaw Club of Catholic Intelligentsia (KIK) and the Society for the Friends of the Catholic University of Lublin. President of the EFFATHA ecumenical Association of Peace and Reconciliation, organising joint monthly prayer meetings for clergy and laity from different Christian denominations in Warsaw. In the period 1990 – 2001 co-organiser and vice-president of the TYLKO Society, offering Gifts of Charity to the homeless. Foundress of the MALWA Home for the Mother and Child and an Integration “Żaczek” Centre. Former literary editor of the JÓZEF Catholic Radio. In 1995 awarded by the Primate of Poland with the order “Distinguished in the Service for the Church and the Homeland”.

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*Zbigniew Baszkowski *
An engineer by education, in his professional career has specialised also in promotion and marketing. An initiator and arranger of numerous collective and solo exhibits and stands at international shows and fairs in Poland and abroad. For many years head of the promotion division of an energy-manufacturing corporation which constructed power plants in Europe and Asia. During his few-year stay in India he participated together with his family in the ecumenical work of the local Christian Diaspora. Currently a member of the ecumenical Association of Peace and Reconciliation “Effatha”. In charge of promotion in the Organising Committee of the V Congress.

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*Ks. Jerzy Below*
||Journalist, editor-in-chief of the „Zwiastun Ewangelicki” biweekly, the most frequently read Evangelical periodical in Poland. The biweekly has been published for over 140 years. It is edited by the “Augustana” Publishing Centre of the Evangelical Church from Bielsko-Biała. “Zwiastun Ewangelicki” was founded in Warsaw by Fr. Leopold Otto.

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*Zdzisław Bielecki*
||Co-president of the Joint Council of Catholics and Muslims. President of the D.O.M. (Work for the Rebuilding of Love) Foundation. Member of the Association of Polish Journalists and of the Association of Polish Filmmakers, Consultant of the Abrahamic Forum at the International Council for Christians and Jews. Former expert of the National Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting, lecturer of journalism at Warsaw University and at the Academy of Catholic Theology. The Joint Council of Catholics and Muslims was established in June 1997. It organises scientific sessions, joint charity projects, and proclaims declarations. The D.O.M. Foundation was set up in 1991. It is a social organisation, established with a view to providing help to the unwanted and rejected, the hungry and the confused. It is likewise committed to initiatives for dialogue and peace. It cooperates, among others, with the Wspólnota Polska Association, Caritas Polska, the Polish Red Cross, and social assistance centres in Warsaw and throughout Poland.

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*Anna Bieńkowska*
In charge of the „Chemin Neuf” Community in Poland. Actively participated in the Polish preparations for the XV World Youth Day and for the Jubilee of Youth in 2000 in Rome.

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*Bishop Władysław Blin*
||Ordinary of Vitebsk, a young diocese in Belarus, established by John Paul II on 13 October 1999. Bishop Blin immediately after his ordination as bishop began to create the basic structures of the diocese, seeking constant material and personal support of other local churches. For over 10 years previously he had been a pastor of the Mogilev cathedral; at this time he restored the cathedral building and organised a “Mahutny Boża” festival of religious music, which remains today one of the greatest cultural events, not only of Christian character, in Belarus.

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*Prof. Rocco Buttiglione*
||Italy’s Minister for European Affairs. Founder of the Democratic–Christian Party connected with the Casa delle Liberta Party of Silvio Berlusconi. Member of the Committee of Freedoms, Civil Rights, Justice and Internal Affairs of the Parliament in Strasbourg. Member of the delegation of the European Parliament for the Preparation of the Fundamental Rights Charter. For many years a member of Christian Democracy, later the People’s Party of Italy (PPI). Member of the Comunione e Liberazione movement. A renowned Catholic writer.

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*Prof. Jerzy Buzek*
||Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, currently Vice-President for teaching of Akademia Polonijna in Częstochowa. Professor of chemistry, former employee of the Institute of Chemical Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice. Honorary doctor of the University of Dortmund. Since 1980 a member of the „Solidarity” trade union. Co-ordinator of the team of economic experts of AWS (Solidarity Election Action) and co-author of the economic part of the Action’s programme. Former president of the Committee of European Integration.

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*Prof. Krzysztof Byrski*
Former Polish ambassador to India. The most distinguished Polish specialist in India and Hinduism. Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw Faculty of Modern Languages. Lecturer at the Postgraduate Study of Diplomacy at the Polish Institute of International Affairs. President of the Committee Initiating the Nomination of Fr. Marian Żelazek for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Member of the auditing committee of the Warsaw Chapter of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia.

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*Michel Camdessus*
||Former President of the International Monetary Fund. In 1998 the „Global Finance” monthly ranked him as the 6th most influential person in the world of finances who „rule the world”. Camdessus openly admits he is a Catholic, which within the financial circles is considered as exceptional.

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*Dr Marek Cichocki*
||Programme Director of the Centre for International Studies. Germanist, philosopher. Graduate of the postgraduate study at the Warsaw University European Centre and the School of Social Sciences at the Polish Academy of Sciences, research worker at the University of Warsaw. Doctor of humanities. Scholarship holder of the Institute of Human Research in Vienna, and of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Author of many articles on European integration and German foreign policy in “Rzeczpospolita”, “Życie” and “Tygodnik Powszechny”. He also publishes in monthlies, e.g. in “Res Publica Nowa”, “Więź”, and “Znak”.

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*Sr. Małgorzata Chmielewska*
For many years committed to work with the poorest. Superior of the Polish houses of the “Bread of Life” Community taking care of the homeless. She is a graduate of the Biology Faculty of Warsaw University. She thought of entering the order of Benedictine Sisters, and in the 1980s was a member of Charles de Foucauld Little Sisters. In 1990 she entered the “Bread of Life” Community in Bulowice near Kęty. She took her perpetual vows in 1998 in France. In Poland she runs homes for the homeless, the sick, and single mothers as well as lodgings for women and men. So far these institutions have provided assistance to a few thousand people, mainly women; 200 children receive scholarships and a few jobless persons find occupation there.
Sr. Chmielewska’s activity has been awarded on numerous occasions, with St. George’s Medal, the title of the Woman of the Year 1996 (granted by the readers of the „Twój Styl” monthly), Medal of 400 Years of Warsaw, honourable mention „Man for Man”, Award of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Award of the Mayor of Warsaw.

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*Agnieszka Chrabołowska*
Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno “Europe of the Spirit”, responsible for contacts with the foreign participants of the Congress. Student of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Former Member of the Board of the “Polis” Association of Young Journalists.

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*Fr. Dr Keith Clements*
||Secretary General of the Conference of European Churches (KEK) – an ecumenical organisation working for Christian unity. A British Anglican clergyman. He was one of the three representatives of KEK participating in the 1999 assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Europe, which led to the creation of the “Ecclesia in Europa” apostolic exhortation.

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*Prof. Emil Constantinescu*
||President of Romania 1996 – 2000, president of People’s Action Party (christian-democrat). As the first democratic President of Romania, and leader of governing coalition of the central-right wing, Constantinescu – who dispelled all fears of the Romanian Orthodox Church – contributed significantly to the Pope’s visit in Bucharest, the first papal pilgrimage to a country with an orthodox majority.

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*Karina and Andriej Czerniak*
Founders of the „Hosanna” Club in Moscow. Orthodox Christians, lay evangelists. Disciples of Fr. Alexander Mien, famous intellectual and pastor from Moscow, murdered in unclear circumstances in the early 1990s. Karina Czerniak is also the editor-in-chief of the “Doroga wmiestie” (Common Way) Christian periodical for young people. The „Hosanna” community was established in the late 1970s. It organises numerous meetings and conferences of an evangelical and cultural character. It also runs periodical schools of evangelisation. Its members, with the blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and the Entire Russia, Alexis II, have on numerous occasions visited the Taize` brothers’ community. Each year they participate in the European Youth Meetings.

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*Dr Piotr M. A. Cywiński*
||President of the Council of St. Adalbert’s Forum. Historian, specialist in medieval studies. Defended his doctorate at the Institute of Polish History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In the period 1996-2000 vice-president of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia in Warsaw, and since 2000 its president. Cooperates with the international organisation Pax Romana. Member of the Team of the Polish Episcopate for Talks with the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. Secretary General of the International Auschwitz Council. Editor-in-chief of an online news bulletin www.diapozytyw.pl. Member of the Consultative Community Council for Nongovernmental Organisations at the National Council for European Integration.

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*Zofia Dietl*
||Student of the Management Faculty of Warsaw University. Chair of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno: “The Europe of the Spirit”. Secretary of the IV Congress of Gniezno: “Quo vadis Europe?” and former secretary of the Council of St. Adalbert’s Forum. Member of the Warsaw Club of Catholic Intelligentsia (KIK). In KIK she was in charge of creating systems of formation of young people. Participated in many projects of reconciliation and dialogue with German and Ukrainian youth. Member of the Neocatechumenal Way.

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*Dr Krzysztof Dorosz*
Writer, poet, essayist, journalist. Editor-in-chief of the Evangelical religious and social „Jednota” monthly devoted much attention to both domestic and international ecumenical issues.

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*Michał Drozdek*
||President of the Ignacy Paderewski Christian-Democratic Institute. Editor-in-chief of the „Znaki Nowych Czasów” bimonthly. Former advisor to Speaker of the Sejm Maciej Płażyński and Prime Minster Jan Olszewski. Former analyst at the Centre for Public Opinion Research. Prepared the Citizens’ Draft of the Constitution. Co-founder, secretary for instruction, former member of the Central Political Council of the Centre Alliance. Former member of the General Board of the reactivated Stronnictwo Pracy (Labour Party). Studied philosophy and sociology at the Catholic University of Lublin.

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*Jan Drzewiecki*
Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno. Delegate of the III Post-war Synod of the Gniezno Diocese. Member of the Archdiocesan Institute of the Catholic Action and the Pastoral and Economic Council of the Blessed Radzym Gaudentius Parish. President of P.O.A.K. Organiser of a counselling and aid programme for the unemployed in the Parish.

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*Prof. Aniela Dylus*
||Lecturer at the Faculty of Historical and Social Sciences of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. Co-founder of the Studium Generale Europa. Specialist in the social teaching of the Church. Studied economy, theology and ethics. Member of the “Societas Ethica” European Association of Ethicists and the European Association of Catholic Theology. Author of numerous works on the ethics of the market. Author of the book „Zmienność i ciągłość” [Variability and Continuity], devoted to the relations between the social teaching of the Church and the economic transformation in Poland after 1989.

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*Fr. Laurent Fabre *
||Founder of the Chemin Neuf community (in 1971). He was then a young Jesuit in Lyons. The Chemin Neuf community is one of the most dynamically developing apostolic movements established in France after the Second Vatican Council. Married couples, families, youth, priests, and consecrated persons live together, following the humble and poor Christ. They serve the Church, the Gospel and the world, wishing to restore unity within the Church, among people and in society. “Spiritual Exercises” by St. Ignatius of Loyola form the basis of formation. Chemin Neuf likewise draws upon charismatic spirituality. Currently, around 6,000 people are tied with the Community. Some of them live under the same roof (life fraternities), others (district fraternities) meet a few times a week for vespers and matins and spend together one of the evenings. Chemin Neuf leads its mission in over 30 countries, and is strongly rooted in 14 of them, including Poland.
Since 1996 a priestly religious institute has functioned within the Community, presided over by Fr. Fabre.

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*Cardinal Józef Glemp*
||Primate of Poland. Metropolitan of Warsaw. For over 20 years has been the Head of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate. Custodian of the relics of St. Adalbert (Wojciech). Led the Church in Poland through martial law and the tempestuous period of nascent Polish democracy. Chair of the II Polish Plenary Synod. Promoted the re-construction of the Catholic Action in Poland. The Concordat was signed and ratified during his leadership of the Polish Church. Ordinary bishop for those Eastern Churches in the territory of Poland which do not have their ordinary bishop, member of the Vatican Congregation for Eastern Churches, member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, in charge of the Pastoral Work for Poles Abroad. Theologian, lawyer, author of publications on Roman Law, specialist in Canon Law.

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*Prof. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz*
||Vice-president of the European Bank for Restructuring and Development (EBRD), former president of the National Bank of Poland, tied with the charismatic Renewal in the Holy Spirit. In the period 1992-2000 president of the National Bank of Poland. Author of numerous scientific works and co-author of a textbook of administrative and economic law.

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*Prof. Jan Grosfeld*
Professor at the Institute of Political Sciences of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Head of the Contemporary Social Teaching of the Church Chair. Lectures on political anthropology and Jewish roots of Christianity. Member of the Committee of the Polish Episcopate for Dialogue with Judaism. Member of the Board of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews.
Essayist, translator. Author of, among others: “Krzyż i gwiazda Dawida” [Cross and the Star of David] (1998), “Czekanie na Mesjasza” [Waiting for the Messiah] (2003). Since 1985, along with his wife, he has been a member of the Neocatechumenal Way.

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*Prof. Stanisław Grygiel*
||Lecturer at the Pontifical Lateran University, at the John Paul II Institute of Science on Marriage and the Family. Head of the Institute’s newly created Chair of Karol Wojtyła, which is to promote the Holy Father’s thought and its influence on philosophical and theological anthropology. Philosopher, a friend of John Paul II’s.

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*Irena and Jerzy Grzybowski*
||Founders and leaders of the „Encounters of Married People” Movement in Central and Eastern Europe. The Movement was established in Poland in late 1977 – early 1978 on the basis of one of the programmes of the „Encounters of Married Poeple” Movement. The development of the Polish version of the programme, still under Communism, led to the creation of the unique spirituality of the Movement in Poland, clearly defining itself as a retreat movement, strongly rooted in Polish religiousness and tradition. Similar meetings were begun in other countries of the former Communist Bloc, where they were initially held in complete secrecy. Today its wealth is drawn upon by Ukrainians, Belorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Slovaks, and Romanians.

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*Bishop Josef Homeyer*
The President of Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), bishop of Hildesheim, Germany. He was ordained a priest on 11 February 1958. From 1972 to 1983 he served as Secretary of the German Bishops’ Conference. On 16 November 1983 he was ordained Bishop of Hildesheim. Today he is President of the Commission for Social Affairs of the German Bishops’ Conference, a member of the contact group of the Polish and the German Bishops’ Conferences and a member of the Protestant-Catholic discussion forum in Germany.
COMECE was launched on 3 March 1980 and is made up of Bishops delegated by the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union. The Bishops’ Conferences of the pre-accesive countries, such as Poland, are associate members of COMECE.

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*Prof. Danuta Hübner*
||Minister for European Affairs. Secretary of the Committee of European Integration. Secretary of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for European issues. Contributed to the conclusion of negotiations on Poland’s membership in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. For many years a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Institutes for Development in Geneva. Former chairwoman of the Social Council for Planning at the Central Planning Office. Former deputy Executive Secretary at the UN European Economic Commission in Geneva and former Executive Secretary (deputy Secretary General) of the UNO. Professor of economics.

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*Very Rev. Archimandrite Benedict Ioannou*
Priest and theologian of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (Constantinople) working for some time at the Office of the Chief-Secretariat of the Holy Synod. In January 2000 he was appointed by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches in Geneva, a post which he holds until today. In July 2003 he was elected as a Member of the Central Committee of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) during the 12th General Assembly of CEC in Trondheim/Norway

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*Fr. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski*
Founder and president of Brother Albert’s Foundation offering assistance to the mentally disabled through the running of the so-called shelters for the disabled and community therapeutic centres and the organisation of occupational therapy workshops. Pastor for the Armenians in Poland. Laureate of St. George’s Medal – honorary award of “Tygodnik Powszechny” granted for „combating evil and an indefatigable construction of good in social life”. The Foundation led by Fr. Zaleski provides care to over one thousand people.

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*Krzysztof Jankowiak*
Press spokesman of the Light and Life Movement, popularly referred to as “Oasis”. Lawyer, member of the National Council of Lay Catholics. Editor-in-chief of „Wieczernik” – formation periodical of the Light and Life Movement. Along with his wife he runs courses in natural family planning. “Oasis” gathers children, young people, adults, as well as members of the clergy, members of lay institutes, and entire families. By means of a formation adequate for each of the groups, the Movement educates mature Christians and serves the renewal of the Church through the transformation of parishes into so-called communities of communities.

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*Mira Jankowska*
President of the LABOR Association, assisting the jobless in the process of overcoming their unemployment. LABOR likewise initiates joint actions of the unemployed, entrepreneurs, and people with jobs, which aim at the prevention and elimination of unemployment and its effects. The Association prevents the sense of being rejected in those who are deprived of work, helps them to overcome the negative psychological effects of their situation through spiritual formation, and assists them in finding or creating for themselves new workplaces.

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*Fr. Stanisław Jurczuk*
President of the Catholic Association of the Disabled. Member of the Honorary Committee of the „Work of the New Millennium” Foundation. Organiser and leader of Foot Pilgrimages of the Disabled to Jasna Góra. Co-initiated the vigorously working parish Caritas team at St. Joseph church in Warsaw’s Koło.

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*Teresa Kapela* (nee Honowska)
Member of the Organizing Committee of V Congress of Gniezno in charge of artistic designs. She represents the Chemin Neuf Community. She graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. During her studies she was a member of the “Beczka” Dominican Student Chaplaincy. She was also engaged in the beginnings of the Taize movement in Poland and of the independent students’ movement. Together with her husbands she takes part in Chemin Neuf Community missions in Russia. Member of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia. Mother of five kids.

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*Emilia Klepacka *
born in 1982, raised in the south of England. She is Coadjutor Director of the World Youth Alliance – Europe in Brussels. As Director of the European branch of the World Youth Alliance, she will be participating in the legislative processes at the European institutions. One of the tasks of WYA is the promotion of the Culture of Life. She was elected as the United Nations Youth Caucus Spokesperson to the United Nations General Assembly. She is a member of the youth council of the Youth 2000 Initiative, recently marked out by Pope John Paul II. She helps the developing countries delegations in formulating the proposals to be accepted by the UN. Lately she has been working at the Europe4Family project and developing contacts in the British Parlament. She is finishing her studies at Cambridge University.

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*Roman Kluska*
||Entrepreneur, founder and former CEO of the Optimus company. In 2000 devoted himself to charity work. Main sponsor of the construction of the sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki and the “Arka” Formation and Retreat Centre of Tarnów Diocese in Grodek upon Dunajec, for which he received the “Mustard Seed” statute. Currently in charge of eight charity projects. One of them is the ProDoKs (Promoter of Good Book) Company, which issues and distributes for free books and videotapes – mainly devoted to religious themes.

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*Fr. Jan Kojło*
Director of Radio Orthodoxia from Białystok – the first radio station in Poland run by the Orthodox community. The station broadcasts readings and commentaries to readings from the Holy Scripture, services, talks about theological and ethical subjects, and catechesis programmes. The radio presents social, cultural and religious subjects essential for the local community. In accordance with the licence, the radio station does not broadcast commercials or sponsored broadcasts.

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*Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz*
||Archbishop Metropolitan of the Mother of God Diocese in Moscow. Earlier an apostolic administrator for Catholics in the European part of Russia. Takes efforts for John Paul II’s visit to Russia. Leads a dialogue with the Orthodox Church, intervening in situations when successive Catholic priests are expelled from Russia. Opposes the term “proselytism” used in reference to the activity of the Catholic Church and talks about the “return to normal” instead.

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*Ewa Kowalewska*
||Director of Human Life International (HLI) and President of the Forum of Polish Women, gathering over 50 women’s organisations. HLI is a world movement that came into being in the United States in the 1970s, when Fr. Paul Marx OSB started to spread the idea of the dignity of human life. The Club of Friends of Human Life where Kowalewska is an activist gathers around 7,000 people and the annual increase amounts to around 2,000.

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*Radosław Krawczyk*
Vice-president of the Council of the Families of Nazareth Movement – a community of consecrated and lay persons. It was founded by Fr. Tadeusz Dajczer. The Families of Nazareth emphasise primarily the role of Mary in the work of salvation and seek Her assistance and intercession on the way of following the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Special value in the community formation is given to the community of life with Mary, and to spiritual and material poverty.

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*Dr Friedrich Kronenberg*
||President of the Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk – an association providing social, medical and financial assistance to former prisoners of extermination and concentration camps and ghettoes. The Association was set up in 1973 – two years after the beatification of Fr. Kolbe – a number of German Catholic associations with a view to contributing to the Polish-German and Jewish-German reconciliation through providing assistance for victims of Hitler’s Nazism. The Work runs old persons’ homes, organises therapeutic help, counselling, and vacation stays in Germany for former inmates of camps, facilitating mutual personal relations. Around 400 people participate in this kind of stay programmes each year.

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*Tomasz Królak*
Born in 1963 – journalist, essayist, deputy editor-in-chief of the Catholic Information Agency. A Polish studies graduate from the Catholic University of Lublin; he has published, e.g. in “Tygodnik Powszechny”, “Więź”, and “Spotkania”. In the period 1996-2002 head of the Catholic news magazine “Czasy” and co-author of a documentary series “The World of John Paul II” (TVP1). Author of books: “Kontemplacja i zdradzony świat. Rozmowy z prof. Stefanem Swieżawskim” [Contemplation and the Betrayed World. Conversations with Prof. Stefan Swieżawski] (W drodze 1999), “Ślady. Świat o Janie Pawle II” [Traces. The World on John Paul II] (with Grzegorz Szuplewski), and “Pontyfikat dla świata” [Pontificate for the World] (Edycja św. Pawła 2003). Laureate of the Bolesław Prus Special Award (1999); nominated for the Bishop Jan Chrapek award for journalists “Ślad” (2003).

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*Prof. Piotr Kryczka*
||Head of the Chair of Sociology of the Family and Education at the Catholic University of Lublin, committed in his research to the family (e.g. directions of transformations of the contemporary family). Founder and for many years Dean of the Chapter of the Social Sciences Faculty of the Catholic University of Lublin in Stalowa Wola.

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*Dr Jan Kułakowski*
||Former plenipotentiary of the Polish Government for the Negotiations of Poland’s EU Membership. Member of the Committee of European Integration. Secretary of state in the Prime Minister’s Office. Graduate and later lecturer at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium. Former member of the General Secretariat of the International Confederation of Christian Trade Unions, Secretary of the World Conference of Labour (Confederation Mondiale du Travail). In the 1980s an activist of the „Solidarity”, currently its honorary member. Former Polish Ambassador to Brussels. Doctor of law.

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*Andrzej Kuźma*
Born Sept. 29, 1967 in the Podlasie region. Graduated in theology at the Orthodox Institute of St. Sergius in Paris, then studied at the Institute of Postgraduate Studies in Chambesy near Geneva. He is a researcher at the Christian Academy of Theology and at the Orthodox Seminary in Warsaw. Participates in the ecumenical movement; since 2000 he has been a member of the Central Committee of the European Conference of Churches.

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*Aleksander Kwaśniewski*
||President of the Republic of Poland. Founder and leader of the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (later the Democratic Left Alliance). Formerly a member of the Board of the Socialist Union of Polish Students, editor-in-chief of the „ITD” weekly and „Sztandar Młodych”. Member of the Polish United Workers’ Party until its dissolution. Former Minister for Youth and Physical Culture, later member of the Council of Ministers and the Head of the Social and Political Committee of the Council of Ministers. One of the major participants of the “Round Table” talks on the Government’s side. Won the presidential election in 1995, defeating Lech Wałęsa. In 2000 elected in the first round for the second five-year term of office.

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*Cardinal Karl Lehmann*
||President of the Conference of German Bishops. He is one of the leading contemporary German theologians. In the period 1974-84 a member of the International Theological Committee in Rome. In 1986 John Paul II appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and subsequently, after two terms of office, in 1998 – a member of the Congregation for Bishops. In 1991 the Holy Father appointed bishop Lehmann a special secretary of the Assembly of the Special Synod of Bishops for Europe in Rome, and in 1993 he became one of the two deputy chairmen of the Council of the Conference of European Episcopates (CCEE). In 1987 he became vice President, and in September 1993 President of the Conference of German Bishops. Cardinal Karl Lehmann is an honorary doctor of a number of Catholic universities, including two Polish ones: the Academy of Catholic Theology (currently Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University) in Warsaw (1997) and the University of Opole (2002).

||
*Chiara Lubich*
||Foundress of the Focolare movement in Trent in 1943, officially recognised by the Holy See in 1964. Awarded the Human Rights Award in 1999 for her contribution to interreligious dialogue. Laureate of many international prizes, e.g. the UNESCO Peace Prize (1996) or the award of the Anglican Church. She has been granted 13 honorary doctorates, e.g. by the Catholic University of Lublin in 1996. She is an author of 33 books, translated into 21 languages.
The “Focolare” movement puts into life Jesus’ testament – “May they be one”. It prays for the gift of unity in families, social life, among young people, in parishes, seminaries, dioceses, religious orders, and becomes involved in the ecumenical dialogue. “Focolarini” may choose consecrated life (they work in different professions, creating small communities) or stay within families (volunteers). There are also focolarini priests working in dioceses or providing pastoral care for communities. The Work of Mary reached Poland in the 1960s from the German Democratic Republic. Two Italians – the physician Anna Fratta in 1974 and the anaesthesiologist Roberto Saltini in 1979 – initiated the first female and male communities of consecrated persons in Poland.
Around 7 million people are connected with the Work of Mary in 182 countries on all continents. 4,500 people are tied with the Work of Mary in Poland.

||
*Marie-Héle`ne Mathieu*
||In 1971, along with Jean Vanier, she founded „Faith and Light” communities, where persons with mental disabilities are treated as partners and join a normal rhythm of life to the greatest degree possible, thanks to which they reveal their multiple talents. The communities gather the disabled, their friends and parents. The „Faith and Light” aims at making the mentally disabled enter to the greatest degree possible the normal rhythm of life thanks to friendship. Relations are as much partner-like as possible. The Movement opposes the traditionally understood charity, seen as aid offered by the strong to the weak.
Teacher, special educator. Foundress of the Christian Office for the Disabled in Paris (OCH). For many years editor-in-chief of the “Ombres et Lumiere” quarterly – a Christian periodical of the disabled, their families and friends. The first woman to deliver a retreat address at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (1998). In the period 1971–2000 she was a coordinator of the international „Faith and Light” movement. In 1984 she received a nomination for a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. She has been awarded the French Legion of Honour.
The „Faith and Light” movement comprises currently around 1,400 communities in around 73 countries. In Poland the first „Faith and Light” communities were established in 1978. Today there are around 170 communities here, each with approx. 30-40 members.

||
*Tadeusz Mazowiecki*
||First non-Communist prime minister of post-war Poland. For many years the leader and until 1995 the president of the Freedom Union. One of the founders of the Warsaw Club of Catholic Intelligentsia. He was among the protesting workers of the Gdańsk Shipyard in August 1980. Co-founder and editor-in-chief of „Więź” (1958–1981), and in 1981 of the “Solidarność” weekly. Interned after the proclamation of martial law. In 1989 participated in the “Round Table” talks. A Special Repporteur of the conflict in former Yugoslavia, appointed by the UN Human Rights Commission. He resigned in protest of the passivity of the international community. Essayist and politician, studied law at Warsaw University.

||
*Fr. Krzysztof Mądel SJ*
Specialist in the Catholic social science. Jesuit, moral theologian, economist. Expert of the Mirosław Dzielski Centre in Kraków. Interested in market ethics and democracy. Author of articles on and observer of social transformations in Poland. Member of the editorial board of the „Życie Duchowe” quarterly.

||
*Prof. Aleksander Mikołajczak*
Director for Science of the European College in Gniezno (Collegium Europaeum Gnesnense). A distinguished classical philologist and medieval scholar. The College led by him develops research on the antique and Christian European heritage. It serves, among others, the promotion of the idea of unity of Europe based on the common cultural legacy. It educates students on European issues by popularising in the general public the ideas of integration and explaining within their context the sense of nations becoming united in the spirit of respect for their cultural identity. It prepares social leaders who understand the spiritual roots of the European identity, but who at the same time have adequate practical knowledge (in the areas of law, pedagogy, foreign languages, IT), allowing them to successfully function within the expanding institutions cooperating with the EU structures.

||
*Ryszard Montusiewicz*
Missionary of the Neocatechumenal Way in Israel, correspondent of the Catholic News Agency, graduate of Polish philology. Along with his wife and five children he took up a mission in Belarus in 1989, later on moved to Israel. Missionary projects run by families are undertaken in the conditions of life of local communities. Entry into the community without any earlier contacts is treated by the participants of the missions as one of the conditions of their credibility. Each of the Polish families on a missionary project is accompanied by a priest, which helps form the embryo of the local Church. Ryszard’s wife, Lucyna, prepared a small group of Polish children in Jaffa for receiving their first communion.

||
*Fr. Prof. Ireneusz Mroczkowski*
Rector of the Seminary in Płock, professor at the Catholic University of Lublin. Defended a doctorate in moral theology at the Lateran University in Rome. In 2001 he transferred to Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. Lecturer in ethics at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Academy of Humanities in Pułtusk. Member of the Mixed Committee for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Mariavite Church.

||
*Archbishop Henryk Muszyński*
||Metropolitan of Gniezno. Delegate of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate in the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE). Member of the Permanent Council of the Synod of Bishops, of the Permanent Council of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Former vice-chairman of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate and chairman of the National Committee of the Great Jubilee 2000. President of the Commission of the Polish Episcopate for Catholic Science. Professor of biblical sciences.
Promoter of Polish-German reconciliation and of Catholic-Jewish dialogue. In the years 1989 – 1994 president of the Commission of the Polish Episcopate for Dialogue with Judaism. Archbishop Muszyński, along with Cardinal Walter Kasper, was a co-author of the principal declarations of Polish and German bishops which were proclaimed during the process of normalisation of Polish-German relations about dialogue, reconciliation and brotherhood. Since 1991, together with Bishop Josef Homeyer from Hildesheim has been a co-chairman of the contact group of the Episcopates of Poland and Germany.

||
*Zbigniew Nosowski*
||Editor-in-chief of „Więź”. Consulter of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Member of the Board of the Warsaw Club of Catholic Intelligentsia. Consulter of the Committee of the Polish Episcopate for the Dialogue with Non-Believers. Studied sociology and theology in the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches in Bossey (Switzerland). In his youth connected with the Light and Life movement, since 1983 a member of the Faith and Life movement.

||
*Karol Okęcki*
Director of the “Arch” Mother-Community in Trosly-Breuil, where he has lived since 1981. Historian, in France since 1979. The “Arch” communities were founded by Jean Vanier in 1964. Their members live on a permanent basis with disabled persons, trying to share the gifts each of the parties can offer. Substantial attention is paid to the development of the special spirituality of the mentally disabled. At present, there are over 1,300 such communities in 70 countries worldwide. In Poland there are three “Arch” communities: in Kraków, Poznań and Wrocław.

||

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*Fr. Radosław Orchowicz*
Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno, Diocesan Pastor for Youth of the Gniezno Archdiocese. Chaplain of the Bolesław Chrobry Troop of the Polish Scouting Union in Gniezno.

||
*Dr Jan Orgelbrand*
Publisher, essayist, lawyer. Deputy editor-in-chief of Znaki Nowych Czasów”; secretary of the Ignacy Paderewski Christian and Democratic Institute.

||
*Dr Krzysztof Pawłowski*
||Rector of the School of Business (National-Louis University) in Nowy Sącz and the School of Business in Tarnów. Laureate of Kisiel Award for „making capital out of knowledge”. Studied at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University. Until 1989 head of the research laboratory at the Nowy Sącz Electrical and Coal Company. The first person in Poland to defend a doctorate in physics while working in industry. His career as a senator interrupted his post-doctoral dissertation.

||
*Piotr Pawłowski*
||Founder and leader of the „Integracja” association and monthly. Disabled journalist, social activist. Works for the integration and awareness of Polish society to the needs and problems of the disabled. He is committed to eliminate architectural and mental barriers. A pedagogue by profession. Famous as an author of television and radio programmes, member of the Board of the National Museum in Warsaw. Multiple awards, e.g. the Totus 2003 Award in the category „promotion of man, charity and educational work”, as well as the Andrzej Bączkowski Award and an award of the Polcul Foundation from Australia; decorated with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Restitution of Poland.

||
*Fr. Mario Pezzi*
Born on 19th September 1942 in Gottolengo, Italy. He joined the Cambonians in 1951 and was ordained to the priesthood on 18th March 1969. He began his Neocatechumenal Way in Rome in 1970. Since 1971 in Italy (Lombardya, Sicilya), Portugal, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda. Since 1982 he has been a member of the International Team in Charge of the Neocatechumenal Way together with Kiko Arguello Carmen Hernandez. Since 1992 he has been incardinated in the Rome Diocese .

||
*Fr. Marek Pieńkowski OP*
Member of the Dominican Order since 1974; prior to this year he had obtained a doctorate in mathematical sciences. On becoming a theology graduate, since 1982 he has lectured in logic and philosophy of nature at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków and at the Philosophical and Theological College of the Polish Province of the Dominican Order, first in Kraków, and then in Warsaw.
Since 1999 in charge of the ESPACES office in Kraków – a Dominican association for questions of European integration (the other offices are located in Brussels, Strasbourg, and Berlin).

||
*Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek*
||Rector and professor of the Pontifical Academy of Theology (PAT). President of the Church Concordat Commission, secretary general of the II Plenary Synod in Poland. Awarded, among others, with St. George’s Medal (award of “Tygodnik Powszechny”, 1988) and the Annual Award of the Polish Robert Schumann Foundation (1998). He wrote over 200 scientific articles, reports and reviews, as well as a few textbooks on canon law. Since he was appointed secretary general of the Polish Episcopate (1993-98), he has become very popular with journalists. He has been Rector of PAT since 1998.

||

||
*Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe*
||Founder of Saint John (the Apostle) Community, born in 1912 in Northern France. From among 11 of his siblings, 7 have become members of religious orders. One of his brothers, Fr. Thomas Philippe, also a Dominican, founded the “Arch” community with Jean Vanier.
In 1930, Fr. Philippe entered Saint Dominic’s Order. Since 1937, he has been a lecturer of philosophy and is probably one of the oldest professors of this matter in the world.
He lectured at the studium of the Paris Province of the Dominicans (Le Saulchoir) and at the catholic University of Fribourg (Switzerland). It is in Fribourg that some students in philosophy asked Fr. Philippe to write for them a rule of life. It was the very beginning of the Community of Saint John, in 1975.
Since the novitiate of the Dominicans in Paris was closed, the first six brothers consecrated themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary on 1975 December 8th, in the Cistercian Abbey of Lérins (France). In 1978, the new religious community was recognized by the Holy See and the brothers became “oblates” of the Abbey of Lérins, until 1986, when they became a diocesan Congregation of the diocese of Autun (France).
Brethren receive a thorough intellectual and spiritual formation. They pray four hours a day, study philosophy and theology, especially the thought of Aristotle and saint Thomas Aquinas. They live in small apostolic communities.
Apart from the male order, also female communities have been established – contemplative nuns and apostolic sisters – and also lay oblates. Altogether, they are a monastic family living of the spirit of saint John.
Saint John’s community numbers around 550 brethren, 250 contemplative sisters and 150 apostolic sisters. They are present in Europe in Africa in America and in Asia.

||
*Fr. Wojciech Prus OP*
Entered the Order in 1983, ordained in 1990. Studied patristics at the Augustinianum Patristic Institute, Rome. Since 1993 a lecturer of the Dominican Seminary. In mid-1994 became a chaplain of the „Beczka” Student Chaplaincy in Kraków. In 1998 elected Syndic (Head of Economics) of the Polish Province of the Dominican Order and currently serving his second term in this office. Leads formation meetings for the „Soli Deo” Association of Lay Catholics at the Warsaw School of Economics.

||
*Marcin Przeciszewski*
||Historian and journalist. President and editor-in-chief of the Catholic News Agency, consulter of the Council of the Conference of Polish Episcopate for Social Communications, vice-president of the Council of St. Adalbert’s Forum, president of the Foundation of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate for Exchanging Catholic Information, editor-in-chief of the “Cienie i Światło” Christian Quarterly of the Disabled and their Families (1991–1994), head of the religion section of the “Spotkania” weekly (1990-1993), vice-president of the international Faith and Light Movement (1986–1991). Married, four children.

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*Beata Ratajczak*
Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno. Since 1991 involved in the Catholic Association of Youth of the Gniezno Archdiocese; she has been Secretary and Board Member of this Association. In charge of the institution of cathedral guides of the Primatial Basilica in Gniezno.

||
*Prof. Andrea Riccardi*
||Founder of St. Egidio’s Community. Historian, lecturer at the Terza Universita in Rome. Specialist in the modern and contemporary history of the Church. His Community numbers over 40,000 members. It takes on a number of initiatives: from providing care to the homeless, through visiting prisoners, to activating all international meetings and mediation in political conflicts (e.g. in 1992 negotiators from the Community led to the signature of the agreement putting an end to the home war in Mozambique). Since 1987 the Community has organised annual meetings of representatives of various religions praying – each in accordance with his or her own tradition – for peace.

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*Maria Rogaczewska*
Postgraduate student at the Warsaw University Institute of Sociology, Department of Social Psychology. Scholarly interests: transformations of social ties in Poland within the family and the public sphere; an M.A. in philosophy at Warsaw University (graduated cum laude; obtained the Jan Józef Lipski Award for an M. A. thesis devoted to Hannah Arendt), a student at the MISH College, philosophy teacher at a junior high school. An active volunteer of the “East Democratic Association” Foundation, sharing the experience of Polish transformations with other countries of Eastern Europe. Shaped by the Dominican Student Chaplaincy at Freta Street 12 in Warsaw; graduate of the Tertio Millennio Institute summer school.

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*Medical doctor Jacek Romankow*
Born in 1954 in a Polish-Austrian intelligentsia family. In 1979 graduated from the Physicians’ Faculty of the University of Medical Studies in Poznań. In 1998 he earned his Ph.D. in medicine.
Apart form professional work as a physician and university lecturer, he is interested in man’s responsibility for the world of nature. In 1990 founded in Poznań the Medical Club of the Natural Protection League – Ecological Federation of Medical Doctors in Poland. He is interested in the message of the ethicists-physicians, including that of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, an Evangelical founder of an ethics of respect for life, and that of Prof. Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian opposing atomic energy.
Another field of interests comprises social issues, including intercultural dialogue. He is a correspondent of magazines devoted to cultural and social issues, such as “Przegląd Ewangelicki – Słowo i Myśl” and “Przegląd Protestancki”, where he has published a number of articles popularising the culture of Central Europe and Protestant traditions, especially in the countries on the Danube – Hungary and Austria, as well as short biography notes of renowned people, such as Palacky or the Czech President Masarik. Jacek Romankow has for many years been President of the Polish section of the Fr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer International Association with its headquarters in Wrocław.

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*Archbishop Stanisław Ryłko*
President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, earlier the head of the division for young people in the Council. Former secretary of the Commission of the Polish Episcopate for the Apostolate of the Laity. Coordinated the organisation of the World Youth Days in Santiago de Compostela in 1988 and in Częstochowa in 1991.
Consulter of the Vatican Congregation for the Promotion of the Faith, member of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers.

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*Fr. Adam Schulz SJ*
||President and founder of the National Council of Catholic Movements. Former spokesperson of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate. Former Rector of the Jesuit Seminary in Warsaw. Organiser of congresses of Catholic movements and associations. Founder of the Communities of Christian Life in Poland, an international formation movement, a successor of Marian Sodalities which take advantage of the spiritual assistance of Jesuits.

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*Maciej Siwak*
Student. Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno. Currently an instructor for logistics of the Polish Scouting Union Headquarters in Gniezno in the rank of a deputy scoutmaster. Head of the Capt. Adam Borys “PŁUG” 7th Regiment of Wanderers “Cichociemni”.

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*Dr Inka Słodkowska*
Sociologist. Member of the editorial board of the „Więź” monthly. Prior to August 1980 connected with the Warsaw SKS. Member of the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Participated in the international conference „Renewed Engagement of All for the Good of Women in the Whole World”, organised in 1996 by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Member of the Warsaw KIK. In her articles she writes e.g. about the moral condition of the state and society and about a new feminism.

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*Dr Maria Smereczyńska*
Spokesperson for the Polish Federation of Associations of Catholic Families. Former government plenipotentiary for the family in Jerzy Buzek’s government. Graduate of the Physicians’ Faculty of the University School of Medicine in Warsaw. Specialist in internal diseases. For 10 years committed to work for the family in nongovernmental organisations.

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*Marta Suchodomska*
Student. Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno. Co-founder and scriptwriter of the CEG Student Theatre. Cathedral guide in the KSM “Młodzi” Service and Trade Agency. A volunteer at the Social Welfare Home in Gniezno.

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Bishop Jan Szarek
President of the Diakonia of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland, former president of the Church’s Consistory. A renowned ecumenist.
Bishop Szarek began his work of a minister of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in September 1960. In 1980 the Diocesan Assembly of the Cieszyn Diocese elected him as the Diocese Senior. Along with the municipal authorities of the city of Bielsko-Biała, during martial law in Poland he initiated the foundation of the first pharmacy based on gifts from abroad. For many years a co-organiser of annual nation-wide evangelisation in Dzięgielów.
In 1991 the Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession elected him Bishop and President of the Consistory of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland, which functions he fulfilled until 2001.

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*Antoni Szymański*
Vice-president of the Polish Federation of Life Protection Movements. President of the Commission of the Sejm of the III term. Sociologist and court custodian. Former member of the Commission for the Family of the Polish Episcopate. Founder of the Gdańsk Council for the Family, headed a team at the Family Department of the District Court in Gdańsk. Laureate of the Włodzimierz Pietrzak Award granted by the „Civitas Christiana” Catholic Association for the „unwavering stance in the defence of life of the unborn and many years of efforts for the pro-family social policy „.

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*Dr Henning Tewes*
Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Poland. Defended his M.A. thesis in the philosophy of European policy at Oxford University, and his doctoral dissertation at the Institute of German Studies at Birmingham University. He is interested in European integration, especially in the comparison of ways of governance in different countries. He has written a number of books and articles on this subject. The Foundation run by him organises conferences and seminars devoted to issues concerning Poland’s integration with the European Union, the economic transformation, the reform of the local self-government, and Polish-German relations. Political decision makers, experts, journalist, scientists, and students are the chief addressees of the activity of the Foundation.

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*Róża Thun*
||President of the Board of the Polish Robert Schumann Foundation. Member of the Warsaw Club of Catholic Intelligentsia. The mission of the Foundation she is in charge of is to prepare Poland and Poles for a conscious participation in the European Union. The Foundation supports social and political initiatives which serve this purpose. It activates pro-European circles, aids organisations working in local communities, facilitates information flow between smaller organisations, and integrates pro-European communities.

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*Fr. Bogusław Trzeciak SJ*
Director of the Warsaw chapter of the Catholic Office for Information and European Initiatives (OCIPE). Head of the Team of Advisors for the European Union at the Conference of the Polish Episcopate. Philosopher, theologian, specialist in canon law. Coordinator of the draft project of a Church news bulletin about European integration www.kosciol-europa.pl, a virtual forum of information and dialogue on contemporary Europe and on Poland’s entry into the EU. OCIPE, active in Warsaw for 10 years, is a branch of a centre run by the Jesuits in Strasbourg and Brussels. It collects information on initiatives of Catholics and other Christian communities in the process of European integration.

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*Cardinal Miloslav Vlk*
||Archbishop Metropolitan of Prague. Former President of the Council of the Conference of Episcopates of Europe (CCEE). As President, he took numerous initiatives for the sake of cooperation between various Churches and for the unification of Europe.
Under Communism, he was frequently dismissed from parishes by the then authorities for his work with the youth, and he was even denied the right to perform his pastoral duties. 1978 – 1986 window cleaner.1986 – 1988: Archivist at the Czechoslovakian Bank, Prague.
After 11 years he returned to pastoral work. A year later he became bishop in České Budějovice, and in 1991 he became Metropolitan of Prague and the Primate of the Czech Republic. He is the 60th successor of St. Adalbert in the Prague bishopric. 1993 – 2000 Miloslav Vlk elected President to the Czech Bishops´ Conference (after the splitting of the Czechoslovak Republic).

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*Piotr Wierzchosławski*
Graduate of Polish philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, postgraduate studies in management at the Małopolska School of Public Administration of the School of Economics in Kraków. Since 1982 connected with the international “Faith and Light” movement. In the period 1991 – 1996 coordinator of the Baltic-Carpathian-Ural zone of the Movement, editor-in-chief of the “Światło i Cienie” quarterly, co-founder and secretary general of the “Ognisko” Christian Association for the Disabled, their Families and Friends in Kraków. In the years 1997-98 a plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Kraków for nongovernmental organisations, currently chief specialist at the Budget Division of the Municipal Office of Kraków.

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*Maria Wilczek*
President of the Polish Association of Women Catholics. Editor-in-chief of the „List do Pani” women’s monthly. Co-foundress of the Forum of Polish Women – „Woman in the Contemporary World”. Expert in the literary works of Fr. Janusz Pasierb. M.Sc. in architecture, certified journalist.

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*Stefan Wilkanowicz*
||President of the “Znak” Foundation of Christian Culture. Vice-president of the National Council of Lay Catholics, vice-president of the International Auschwitz Council. Member of the Warsaw and Kraków KIK. The „Znak” Foundation was established in 1993 by the Znak Public Publishing Institute. In the period 1957 – 1994 editor and editor-in-chief of the “Znak” Catholic monthly. Active in the field of international cooperation for the development of Christian culture. Issues books and other publications, organises symposia, questionnaires and competitions, runs Internet websites, among others an online magazine „Forum – Żydzi – Polacy – Chrześcijanie” and an online job forum, and publishes the “EuroDialog” periodical of the European dialogue with the Institute of Central and Eastern Europe.

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*Mariusz Wiśniewski*
Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno. Works with intellectually disadvantaged children and youth at the Schooling and Educational Centre in Gniezno. Cooperates with cathedral guides at the Primatial Basilica. Active tourist guide of the Gniezno chapter of the Polish Tourist Country-Lovers’ Society (PTTK).

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*Prof. Edmund Wittbrodt*
||Representative of the Senate of the Republic of Poland in the European Convention. Vice-chairman of the Joint Commission of the Republic of Poland and the European Parliament. Member of the Foreign Affairs and European Integration Commission, and Commission for Science, Education and Sport. Former Minister for National Education, former President of the Gdańsk Polytechnic. Professor of technical sciences.

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*Piotr Wojciechowski*
President of the Association of Polish Writers, member of the Covenant of Families. Writer and essayist. Connected mainly with Catholic press. Author of novels touching upon cultural and civilisational transformations and moral issues. Author of collections of short stories, movie scripts and books for children. Collaborator of „Tygodnik Powszechny” and „Więź”, reviewer of the „Film” weekly. Lecturer at the Film Academy in Łódź. Member of the Warsaw Club of Catholic Intelligentsia.

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*Lena Wojdan *
Member of Organizing Committee of 5th Gniezno Congress in charge of visual settings. Psychologist and therapist. Member of Christian Psychologist Association. Artist.

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*Paweł Wosicki*
President of the Polish Federation of Movements for the Protection of Life and of the “Głos dla Życia” Foundation. Editor in chief and publisher of the “Głos dla Życia” magazine. President of the Council of Catholic Movements and Associations of the Poznań Archdiocese. Doctor of theoretical physics, former employee of the Institute of Molecular Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, currently an entrepreneur.

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*Janusz Zawadzki*
Teacher. Member of the Organising Committee of the V Congress of Gniezno. He has worked in Primary Schools no. 7 and 9 in Gniezno. In the period 1992-95 he was advisor-teacher at the Provincial Methodological Centre in Poznań. Teacher of the I Bolesław Chrobry High School in Gniezno.

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*Fr. Maciej Zięba*
||Provincial of the Polish province of the Dominicans. Specialist in Catholic social teaching. Prior to his entering the Dominican Order, he was an activist of the „Solidarity” trade union. Director of the „Tertio Millennio” Institute. Specialist in and propagator of the writings of John Paul II. Author of a few hundred publications in domestic and foreign press and of a few books.

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*Sr. Prof. Zofia Zdybicka*
Philosopher from the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). Head of the University’s Chair of the Philosophy of God and Religion, former Dean of the Philosophy Faculty of the Catholic University of Lublin. An Ursuline nun. In 1978, as the first religious sister in Poland, she received the title of an extraordinary professor, and ten years later of an ordinary professor. Head of the philosophy of religion section in the Catholic Encyclopaedia, member of the editorial board of Roczniki Filozoficzne KUL and of the Commission of the Episcopate for Dialogue with Non-Believers. Disciple of the renowned philosopher Fr. Prof. Mieczysław Krąpiec OP.