Catholic writer Peter Hebblethwaite observes: “Devotion to Mary is something else that Wojtyla owes to the Polish long tradition. . . . Even in his briefest statements he alludes to Mary.” This significant remark is a clue to a predominant facet of the present pope’s religiosity​—his attachment to the Virgin Mary under her many different manifestations in the Catholic world.

In his authorized biography of the pope, Lord Longford states: “His devotion to the blessed Virgin Mary is a fundamental part of him. . . . It is impossible to think of him without it. In this respect he shares no doubt in a fervent Polish tradition.

How did some Italian Catholics react to Polish Catholicism? Writer Peter Nichols describes the reactions of a group who visited Poland to see for themselves the Catholic revival there. “The first shock​—there were others—​was that Jesus had a subordinate role. The Virgin Mary came first and the Polish pope second, with Jesus, as these young people put it, a bad third.”