ARE THE CHRISTIANS SUPPOSED TO BE MOVED TO CATACOMBS AGAIN?
LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF 'NIEDZIELA'
A few days after the assassinations in Paris on 13 November 2015, the Polish Press Agency informs: ‘In Brussels and in the whole region of the capital city, the highest level of terrorist danger has been raised. In the city the underground service has been stopped’. – The advice for people is obvious: avoid places where there are a lot of people, such as, shopping centres, concerts and public means of transport – explains the spokesman of the governmental crisis centre. It is really difficult to believe that we live in this world. This is ‘the third world war in pieces’ -says pope Francis, that is, an indescribable war pursued outside a field of battle. In various parts of the world innocent people are killed and nobody knows when another attack from the so-called Islamic State will come. There is a question: are the Christians, like in the first centuries, to be moved to catacombs again? It is necessary to say that a strong clash of cultures has come. Europe can be saved with the return to its Christian roots. If the Old Continent does not invite real God to itself, He will be replaced by Allah, and the Bible will be replaced by Koran. To my surprise, I read the quotation in media, said by the German chancellor Angela Merkel a few months ago: ‘You are afraid of islamization, start going to church, then. Let’s renew tradition of going for religious services and reading the Bible (…). Let’s have courage to say that we are the Christians’.
An author of pages of the latest ‘Niedziela’, entitled ‘Seduced Europe’ is carrying out an analysis of after the terroristic attacks in Paris. He notes that Europe grew out of Christ’s Cross but at present it is losing its Christian identity more and more, dooming itself to death in an elegant style of secularism, in which savage race of celebrities’ popularity is emphasized, as well as high quotes of competitive fashion houses or car models. Whereas, ‘the elderly lady Europe seems to be inwardly lost, does not know who it is and where it is going’. Looking at the photos of the bloody assassinations in Paris, to my surprise I notice that in the places of mass memory about victims of the assassination, among candles and flowers, mourners leave bottles with Brand wine ‘Bourgogne’, famous kinds of French cheese or baguettes. We can understand it as a signal from the Western secularized world. Whereas ‘the elderly lady Europe is still beautifying its destroyed face with another portion of powder of tolerance or mottos full of humanistic references, but, in fact, Europe needs spiritual finding itself and its Christian identity’. We can only appeal: ‘Europe, return to God’.
Advent is just coming and soon pope Francis will open the Holy Year of Mercifulness. It takes pace in a very dangerous time. The Secretary of the State of the Holy See cardinal Pietro Parolic, in his talk with a French Catholic journalist of ‘La Croix’, says openly that Vatican may become the target of terrorists’ attacks because of its religious significance. After all, it is the worldly capital city of Catholicism. So, safety means have been strengthened. And, on the other hand, it is necessary to be aware that in the situation of the terrorist assassinations in Paris, the Holy Year of Mercifulness beginning on 8 December in Paris, is taking an exceptional significance. Now, getting engrossed in Divine Mercifulness ‘is a suitable answer to the terror in order to find reconciliation’ – notes the director of the Press Office of the Holy See Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ. This is a rescue for scared people and time of a particular grace.
AA
„Niedziela” 48/2015