More than 30,000 Poles, including President Alexander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, are to travel to Rome from July 6-8.

More than 30,000 Poles, including President Alexander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, are to travel to Rome from July 6-8 on a "national pilgrimage" as part of the Jubilee 2000 celebrations, organizers said Tuesday. More than 90 percent of Poles declare themselves to be Catholic. Some 60 Polish bishops will also take part in this unprecedented pilgrimage, as well as the chairmen of both chambers of parliament and Solidarity leader and presidential candidate Marian Krzaklewski, said Jacek Pedziwiatr of the pilgrimage’s organizing committee. "We would like to thank God for the gift of the Jubilee of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. We also have special gratitude to him for having given us a Polish Pope," Father Adam Schulz, spokesman for the Polish Episcopate, was quoted as saying in the daily Zycie. The main events of pilgrimage include celebrating mass Thursday morning with Pope Jean-Paul II and a meeting later in the day.