Shortly after I had finished writing...

...the piece about Krakow (see below - scroll down) I dropped in to Westminster Cathedral, partly to deliver some leaflets about the Towards Advent Festival.  Large numbers of pople were arriving, including young people in Scout uniform, and elderly men with flags and rows of medals.Intrigued, I enquired.  It was the Polish community, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, in which Polish squadrons fought with such courage.

I stayed. Paying tribute to the men who fought for Britain's freedom, only to be denied freedom for their own country when the war ended, is a debt of honour. Some years ago, I learned, through working on a book with a survivor, about the courageous battle of the Polish Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising, and growing up near a former Battle of Britain fighter station, I learned too about the Polish pilots.

For years and years, Poland could not honour her heroes properly, but the Polish exiles in London always did so. And now, 75 years after the war ended, here in London the Polish Embassy was doing so too. You can read more about this on the Embassy website, which also has some pix of the Mass.