EN
In the poem Wspomnienie [Remembrance], Teofil Lenartowicz, one of the forgotten Polish poetsof the 19th century, describes his audience with Pope Pius IX in 1853. Lenartowicz and his friend,Rev. Hipolit Terlecki, asked the pope to support the aspirations of the Poles to reclaim independencefor their occupied country. Pius IX declined to support the Polish aspirations, and Lenartowicz describeshis disappointment at the indifference displayed by the pope. The poem is examined in the contextof another audience at which Adam Mickiewicz, a distinguished Polish author, was received by the samepope as well as in the context of the Kulturkampf – the conflict between the German governmentand Roman Catholics in East Prussia.