Posted on 09/18/2017 10:25:34 AM PDT by ebb tide
There are signs of growing tension between the Polish government and Church hierarchy
Standing at an outdoor pulpit at Poland’s holiest Roman Catholic site, the nation’s top church leader delivered a message to the president and prime minister seated before him: Poland must show compassion to refugees and respect its own Constitution.
Archbishop Wojciech Polak’s words were understood by many Poles as criticism of the country’s conservative leaders.
The archbishop’s admonition, along with disapproving remarks from other religious leaders in the homeland of sainted Pope John Paul II, signal that the influential Catholic Church sees a need to correct the path of the country’s governing politicians.
The church’s reproach, while so far delivered diplomatically, raises the question of whether the ruling Law and Justice party could be at risk of losing some of its wide support among believers in a country where nine out of 10 citizens identify as Catholic.
“We must be open and compassionate and ready to help those most needy, weak and persecuted, migrants and refugees,” Polak said during a Mass celebrated at the Jasna Gora shrine in the city of Czestochowa to honour church-state relations. “We must respect the social order rather than destroy it thoughtlessly.”
Another prominent bishop, Tadeusz Pieronek, went further recently, accusing leaders of consciously “violating the Constitution” as they overhaul the judiciary system. He called it “villainy.”
Law and Justice party came to power in 2015 thanks in part to the support of the church. Parish priests in small towns and villages used their sermons to help the party in its campaign by praising the values it advocated.
So did Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk, a business-minded priest who runs an influential broadcasting network. The government subsidizes the network and Cabinet ministers often appear on its Radio Maryja station.
At the height of Europe’s migrant crisis, which came during Poland’s 2015 election campaign, Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski advocated anti-migrant attitude, saying migrants posed a threat because they might carry “parasites and protozoa,” a comment criticized for inciting xenophobia.
A 2016 visit from Pope Francis did little to budge the Polish authorities from their unyielding refusal to accept refugees or migrants. Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, the mother of a priest, often stresses that Poland aids refugees financially and medically in centres outside of Europe, close to their homelands.
The church hierarchy stepped into politics again last week. With gentle language that nonetheless displayed displeasure, five bishops opposed the Polish government’s renewed demand for World War II reparations from Germany. Occupying German Nazis killed nearly a fifth of Poland’s population during the war and left the nation in ruins.
The bishops said that “ill-considered decisions and rash words” could easily destroy the hard-won reconciliation between Poland and Germany. They also recalled the help Germans gave to Poles during some of the darkest days of communism.
Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, who heads Poland’s bishops’ council, also waded into an ongoing political dispute over the ruling party’s attempts to overhaul the justice system. Gadecki thanked President Andrzej Duda for having vetoed two government-proposed bills that he found too extreme.
Warsaw University political scientist Anna Materska-Sosnowska said Polak’s unusually strong words at the shrine Mass could turn away some voters, but that the effect only will become evident during local elections next year and the parliamentary election scheduled for 2019.
But Kazimierz Kik, political analyst of the Jan Kochanowski University interpreted Polak’s words as a friendly reprimand and expression of concern that could paradoxically strengthen the public’s trust in the leaders.
The words show that “the church is with the government, not against it and warns it at the right moment against going too far into a conflict situation,” like the standoff with the EU over migrants, Kik said.
The question is, will the authorities heed the warning.
Some Poles don’t expect criticism from the church to cost the ruling party much support.
“People in small towns will keep listening to their local parish priests, the majority of whom praise the government,” Andrzej Kaminski, 77, a retired engineer said. “The church hierarchy is high and far away and the local priest is right there, with them.”
Nope. I'd say the catholic bishops are in far greater danger of losing support. Somebody needs to tell these ladies it ain't the middle ages anymore and there opinion is just that. An opinion.
I think it is you who needs to reread the article. The Polish bishops are encouraging a muslim invasion of a Catholic country.
The Roman Catholic pope is a Marxist-Globalist.
Did you get that? The bishops want to respect a secular constitution.
Way to alienate one of your strongest support bases.
Polish people are VERY serious about their faith.
> What wall? <
Let’s be honest here. Most of Vatican City is surrounded by huge walls. True enough, the public can enter through St. Peter’s Square. And once in, you can walk through the square.
But you cannot stay! If Vatican officials want you out, out you go. And don’t even dream about access to Vatican offices, gardens, or palaces. They are all walled off. And also don’t even dream about applying for Vatican citizenship. Ain’t gonna happen. That citizenship is so restrictive that even life-long employees of the Vatican usually cannot get it.
The Vatican of course has every right to restrict access to its property, and to restrict access to its citizenship. But it is a bit hypocritical of it to then criticize the restrictions other countries impose.
Aside #1: I’m well aware of how small the Vatican is. But surely there is room in the City for a few high-rises to hold immigrants. I’m not seeing any go up.
Aside #2: I’m not Catholic, but I have more than a little admiration for the Catholic Church. And it distresses me to see the direction this current Pope is taking.
Source sounds like a UK version Catholic Reporter
You are wrong. There is no wall in front of St Peter's Basilica. It's open, all the way to the Tiber River, and beyond.
Show us your "wall".
ah, my mistake, makes the comment about the parish priests supporting a different position make more sense.
> There is no wall in front of St Peter’s Basilica. It’s open, all the way to the Tiber River, and beyond. <
Yes, that’s true. That’s why I said “most of Vatican City is surrounded by huge walls”, and not “all of Vatican City is surrounded by huge walls”.
But that’s really not the point. The point is that most of Vatican City is off-limits. You cannot just stroll across the border, build yourself a shack, and then apply for citizenship.
Yet the Pope is telling other countries that they must let illegals stroll across the border, build themselves a shack, and then apply for citizenship.
As an aside (I love asides), I admire your defense of the Vatican, even though I obviously disagree. So I’ll let you have the last word if you wish. Regards!
Meanwhile, back in London . . .
Today the ruling party has the biggest notes in polls ever and could even win the Constitution Majority (60% of seats) if elections took place today.
As to the Church hierarchy, their being influenced by the Pope Francis is more than visible. Anyway, people doesn't care and behave as if they are blind and deaf to their teaching referring the migrants, especially after the brutal rape of the Polish woman in Italy by four African so called “refugees”.
Contemporary Poles are deeply religious, even more than when JPII was their pope. Our PM’s son is a Catholic priest, many claim that our President Duda is anointed by Eucharistic Christ,and indeed they truly live the god-fearing life, no fake.
As to my personal attitude to clergy and its stance on migrants, if being asked, (not necessarily at the confession) I used to answer them straight out that in my lifetime I have never been obliged by my conscience to confess the sin against the First Commandment (I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me)
Christ, only Christ and nobody else but Christ, father! So please, no acceptance of Allah, please do not lead me into temptation, fathers.
Would you believe, this really does:)))
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