DO NOT CLOSE DOWN OUR SCHOOLS!
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
Liquidation of the Education Ministry? It does sound unbelievable, as if it was the biggest absurd. But we also ask another question: didn’t such a thought come to the mind of people who learnt that a school is being liquidated in their village? This is a dramatic situation. Are we allowed to liquidate schools which educated many generations of the residents in various villages...? Many of us remember very well the action of the government promoting: Thousands of schools per a millennium. Do all the schools created at that time serve to the society and are they still functioning?
The school has always fulfilled its task towards the local community. More and more new groups of children come to it to learn and fulfil school duties. And when they finish their education, they do not lose their relationships with their teachers but visit them. For, the school community is an extremely strong community. It is obvious that there must be teachers, a building, assured heating in winter, there must be somebody who will open the school in the morning and close it in the afternoon or evening. All this – as far as I remember – was happening automatically, and parents did not have to get engaged in it. In the recent time we have experienced different propagandist actions, like these supporting the use of contraceptives by women, so that they would not give birth to their babies. Probably, even some so-called wise teachers calling for ‘modern’ practises, did not know that they are cutting the branch on which they have been sitting. For, the time of demographic decrease is coming and there are less and less children. We can see more and more the crisis of family, and it is more difficult to keep family, but we also see a phenomenon of our chasing after life comfort. All this makes it difficult for the school to function. A man is not a marionette and he cannot be suddenly placed in a row of ten or twenty children – a man must be born, brought up and grow for a nursery and then for a school and finally for his further life. It is a matter of responsibility for the fate of the nation and the world. The Church does not change in its teaching and is trying to bring up a new generation of Poles for high responsibility for the fate of our homeland. We do not have to convince anybody of it, as everybody knows how much attempt and effort have been taken up by the Church in order to maintain the continuity of generations. However, modern atheists are acting according to the rule: there are no children – there is no school. They want to create the so-called modern society. It is a difficult and sad problem for people who live in small villages. We must do something about it; or maybe we should see what the present authority is doing in the society? A question concerning the function of the country, among the others, relating to the school, upbringing, and family, must be asked to the present government of Poland. Isn’t there any place for the question concerning their family policy? Is it really pro-family policy? Let’s compare our country to the situation in Hungary where the Prime Minister Orban really cares about protecting the Hungarian family in a proper way. A lot has been said about pro-family policy in our country but no facts confirm it. In fact, the country should be for the family. People should be happy in their families, and have full conditions to give birth to their children, bring them up, work and maintain their families in a suitable way. Everything else should be happening around their families. It concerns a workplace, ways of functioning of economy, energetics and all other areas of economic and social life. Family should be the central point. If the family does not have any conditions, it dies, if the family policy does not exist, if the family of many children or single mothers are not supported, or if a woman’s pension age is raised, a question should be asked: What will happen to the family? Is the government aware that the family is most important in the country and everything should be subjected to it? Is it aware that in the modern country social justice obliges and nobody should conclude that some people are well off, whereas other people live in poverty and cannot afford to buy bread. The duty of the government is to introduce social justice in the country. And when we are thinking about the sources of the authority, we mean the election for the parliament. The society must be aware that an essential argument exists in the life of citizens which is called an electoral card. We should give the authority to these citizens who really love our homeland, care about the Polish family and are not looking for their own interest. We must strongly emphasize the significance of the Catholic social teaching about the righteousness in the public life and real democracy. It is sad that only 48% citizens vote and 52% do not vote, losing their civil chance to influence the fate of their country. And it would be them to decide about who should govern Poland and they would not allow for atheists in the parliament. Those Polish Catholics should come out of their homes and go to the elections.
We need to call for our participation in elections today although it is still a long time till the election. It is about the problem that people of high righteousness, honesty, those who follow the right rules of ordinary democracy should vote for justice. Then we can think about Poland and about everything which composes it. And we will not listen to what is ordered by others – the West or the East. Let’s trust Jesus Christ who teaches us righteousness in his Gospel. Let’s trust God who reminds us of the Decalogue. If we stick to these values which come from the Gospel and which are guarded by the Church, we can be calm about Poland, family and about the fact that this authority will not close down our schools but will shortly prepare our country for the situation when the Polish family could be happy about children and provide everybody with harmony and peace.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 9/2012