<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-article-title">How influential is Poland’s Catholic Church?</h1>
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<div class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-article-author">by <b><a href="http://catholicherald.co.uk/author/ben-sixsmith/" title="Posts by Ben Sixsmith" rel="author" target="_blank">Ben Sixsmith</a></b></div>
<div class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-article-date">posted <time datetime="2017-12-14 12:10:00">Thursday, 14 Dec 2017</time></div><div class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-article-date"><time datetime="2017-12-14 12:10:00"><a href="http://catholicherald.co.uk/issues/december-15th-2017/how-influential-is-polands-catholic-church/" target="_blank">http://catholicherald.co.uk/<wbr>issues/december-15th-2017/how-<wbr>influential-is-polands-<wbr>catholic-church/</a><br></time></div>
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<div class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-article-featured"><img src="http://catholicherald.co.uk/content/uploads/2017/10/GettyImages-858628008-800x500.jpg" class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-featured-image m_8749105243481943950gmail-wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-right:0px" width="289" height="180"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> </span><div class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-featured-caption"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
People take part in a mass rosary prayer along the Polish border (Getty Images) </span></div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
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<p class="m_8749105243481943950gmail-article-standfirst"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Western media paints</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Poland </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>as a hotbed of extreme nationalism.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">The truth</span> is far more complicated</b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>John Paul II is everywhere in Poland. His face smiles down from
photographs</b></span>. He stands in statue form. I have a little stone engraving
of his face – I don’t know where it came from. If somebody came here and
knew little of the Church they would think he, not Francis, was Pope.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">This is unsurprising. John Paul II was not just Polish: he received
the papacy as Poland struggled in the grip of communism. His tenure was a
source of immense national pride. Millions of Poles are sincere
practising Catholics, but faith blurs into patriotism and politics.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>Poland burst into the headlines on November 11, when a march to
celebrate the nation’s Independence Day featured chants of “Pure Poland,
white Poland!”</b></span> and an appearance by the Italian fascist Roberto Fiore.
<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>Analysts who are by no means favourable to nationalism have concluded
that most of the marchers were not extremists, but the undeniable
rightwards shift in Poland has attracted attention to its politics and
religion.</b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>In October, more than a million Poles gathered around their nation’s
borders to hold rosaries and pray. This marked the feast of Our Lady of
the Rosary, which celebrates the triumph of the Holy League over the
Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto.</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">It would be foolish to deny that participants were inspired by their
concerns about Islamic fundamentalism.<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> Poles have been unnerved <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">by
images of terrorism in their Western neighbours’ cities</span>, and Catholics
have been appalled<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> by the killing</span> of Fr Jacques Hamel and <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">the attacks on</span>
Notre-Dame Cathedral. </b></span>Whatever one thinks of this, it would be unfair
to believe that t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>he border prayer </b></span>was a political stunt. It<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> coincided
with several other anniversaries, significant for Catholics and Poles,
such as the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions. Participants
revealed motivations such as thanking God for their children as well
seeking protection against<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> terrorists.</span></b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>As the Law and Justice party (PiS) has come to dominate Polish
politics there has been a shift towards <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">social conservatism.</span> Muslim
refugees have been denied settlement in Poland; an <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">absolute prohibition</span>
on<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> abortion</span> was considered; Sunday shopping looks as if it will be
banned. Such rulings divide liberal and conservative Poles (though the
latter two is<span style=""></span>sues, it must be said, more starkly than the first).</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>The Church<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>influences PiS, both because of the party’s dependence on
Catholic voters and because of its leaders’ and members’ own beliefs.
Beata Szydło, Poland’s outgoing prime minister, has a son who is a
priest. PiS, however, is no mere arm of the Church. The campaign to
prohibit Sunday trading was led by <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the trade union Solidarity</span>, famous
for its resistance to<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> communism.</span></b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>Meanwhile, bishops – notably Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno,
who sits on the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and
Itinerant People – have encouraged the government to accept refugees,
echoing the Pope’s words when he visited the country.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>PiS, however,
prioritises nationalism in this case, demonstrating its political
independence.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>To the extent that Poland’s rightwards turn is driven from
the top, it is a governmental more than clerical phenomenon.</b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>The Polish Church </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>is not monolithic. Like most religious
institutions, it has reactionary, conservative and liberal trends. On
the more progressive side is the magazine <i>Tygodnik Powszechny</i>.
The Polish right, meanwhile, draws inspiration from Radio Maryja, run by
the maverick Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk, a controversial figure for his hardline
social views. Fr Rydzyk has an awkward alliance with the government and
broadcasts to an increasingly aged audience. But he is still far closer
to power than he might have anticipated when, in 2011, he declared that
“Poles do not lead Poland” in the European Parliament.</b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>The Independence Day parade was organised in part by the National
Radical Camp (ONR), a movement formed, in its words, with the aim<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> of
“<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">bringing together young Poles who are close to such values as God,
Honour, Homeland, Family, Tradition and Friendship”.</span> The first point in
their declaration of values is that “<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">salvation in God is the ultimate
goal of man”</span>, and the second is that “the nation is the highest earthly
value”. Harking back to pre-war nationalists who, inspired by Franco,
advocated Catholic authoritarianism, the ONR began as a radical group
demonstrating on the anniversaries of anti-Jewish riots, but have
developed a broader and more savvy platform from w</span>hich to promote their
Polish Falangism.</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Church attendance</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>has declined in</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Poland </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>over recent years</b></span>,<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> and birth
rates</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>are far lower than one might expect.</b></span> Anyone seeking a bastion of
traditionalism would be bitterly disappointed.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Yet the pews were fuller last year than</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> in 2015,</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>and Poland’s
government and millions of its citizens resist </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>progressivism</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> in their
politics and in their faith.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>This trend has social, cultural and
political aspects which should not be oversimplified. Poles argue all
the time about government and God.</b></span></span></p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>
</b></span><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Still, it sets them apart from</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>their <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">Western neighbours</span></b></span>. <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>All are drifting – the important question is where.</b></span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><i>Ben Sixsmith is an English writer living in Poland</i></span></p></div>