On the evening of October 16, 1978, when I appeared at the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica to greet the people of Rome and the pilgrims gathered on the piazza, waiting for the result of the conclave, I said that I came "from a far country." In fact, the geographical distance is not great. By air the journey takes barely two hours. In calling it a "far country" I intended to allude to the presence of the "iron curtain." The Pope from behind the iron curtain truly came from afar, even if, in reality, he came from the very center of Europe. The geographical center of the Continent is actually located on Polish territory. … The election of a Pole seemed like a revolution. It demonstrated that the conclave, following the indications of the Council, was seeking to read the "signs of the times" and to ponder its decisions in the light of these. -- From "Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium" (2005)