“Be not afraid." These were the first words that the first public address of the first Polish pope after his election in October of 1978, they were the words who would come to define Pope John Paul II. Words that would change the world.
Biden is catholic, and Poland is 92% catholic [1]. A papal (catholic) introduction creates a bond between Biden and the crowd. JFK (another catholic) did a similar thing, linking “the sons of Ireland and the sons of Poland” [2]. Both are heavily catholic countries. This is a time tested and effective strategy.
John Paul brought the message here to Warsaw in his first trip back home as pope in June of 1979. It was a message about the power, the power of faith, the power of resilience, the power of the people. In the face of a cruel and brutal system of government, it was a message that helped end the Soviet repression in the central land in Eastern Europe 30 years ago.
Beginning the speech with an anti soviet tilt sets up Biden to compare Putin to the soviets.