After their first visit to the European Union headquarters in Brussels Nov. 4-7, Polish Roman Catholic bishops promised officials that the Church would help spread knowledge of the EU among Poles.

When the 10 clergymen set off for their three-day trip to Brussels, they were less than optimistic. "We were not going to Brussels as politicians; that was clear from the very beginning," Episcopate Secretary Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek said at a news conference in Warsaw. "One could even say we were going there with some reservations. But now they have been washed away, and I think it's good we went. Now we see the EU more clearly than before the visit," he added.