It was the year ’70. I was appointed to the dignity of the bishopric by Pope Paul IV and nominated as an apostolic administrator in Białystok. For the first time I participated in the Polish Episcopal Conference. I was assigned to a room in the place now occupied by the Apostolic Nunciature. Cardinal Kominek also had his apartment there so we would meet during meals, as well as in the conference room where he would sit among the dignitaries and we, the young ones, […] at the end.

During our conversations he inquired where I had been born, where I had been educated. There was such fatherhood, a very warm and kind approach in all this. You were not embarrassed in front of this dignitary of the Church. I opened myself up as if he was a very old friend about whom I knew a lot. And after the end of the Episcopal Conference, I had to go to Białystok to canonically take over the diocese.

I asked the nuns to order a taxi because I had to go to the Wileński Station. But no taxi was available. It was January: frost, snow… And then Cardinal Kominek came to help me and said: “Father, on our way to Wrocław, we will give you a ride to the station.” And they gave me a ride.