NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN POZNAŃ AS A FUNDAMENT FOR GENERATIONS
ELŻBIETA KRAWCZYK
The beginning of the Polish statehood and its significance for today were emphasized both by priests and politicians. President Andrzej Duda, speaking to the National Assembly, MPs and senators, who had been given mandates by citizens, to take care of this heritage and whose name is Poland, stated that baptism of Mieszko I 1050 years ago had been the most important event in our whole history – all others, also very important, would not have taken place if it not had been for the decision of the Polish prince. He also emphasized its validity, saying that it should not be spoken about in the past tense, but the present one. Referring to the event from centuries ago, he emphasized that it was the beginning of building a community. It was built successfully and thanks to the strength of a binder which the community received from Christianity and the West culture, which had been accepted by a ruler of Polan then, despite history storms, Poland survived.
President Duda noted that today the civilisational circle is marked not only by Athens, Rome or Jerusalem. He said: - Thanks to efforts of 30 generations of Poles, other important centres have appeared on Christianitatis map. It is, for example, Gniezno, in which there are relics of St. Wojciech – reviving faith not with a sword but a word. This is Warsaw -the capital of the country without any stacks or religious wars. The city in which the Seym of the Polish Republic enacted the Warsaw conference – the first legal act in the world guaranteeing the universal religious tolerance. This is Warsaw – the headquarter of king Jan III Sobieski, a winner at Vienna, and a city on the outskirts whose invasion by communist barbarism on Europe was stopped in 1920. These are Toruń and Frombork – cities connected with Mikołaj Kopernik, a chancellor of Warmia Chapter, a creator of one of the biggest breakthroughs in history of humanism. This is Cracow – the city of St. bishop Stanisław from Szczepanów, a brave preacher of moral duties of public authorities, the city of Cracow Academy and Fr. Paweł Włodkowic – one of the most prominent theoreticians of religious tolerance. This is Cracow of Karol Wojtyła – the saint pope John Paul II who brought the Polish Church into the second millennium. This is Poznań – the capital of bishop Wawrzyniec Goślicki, the author of original political concepts in the XVI century, which were inspirations for creators of American constitution and many other opponents of the monarchic lawlessness. This is Brześć Litewski – a place of concluding the ecclesiastical union, being one of the biggest efforts for the sake of reconciliation between the Christian East and West. This is Częstochowa – a city which must be visited in order to understand a particular position and respect enjoyed by women in Poland. The city, in which at the feet of the biggest cult in Poland, in front of the Icon of Jasna Góra Our Lady, one can still hear ‘God’s Mother’ – a song considered as the first Polish national hymn. These are hundreds of towns, especially on the former borderlands where ethnical and religious minorities lived near one another in peace. Finally, these are towns, with which a lot of our compatriots - world-known artists, writers, scholars and inventors had their lives and works connected. People who paid their debt of gratitude, in an imposing way, towards culture which had formed them.
Christian civilization – co-created and defended by Poles for 1050 years – is the result of a titanic work and fight of millions of people. The effect of a lot of investigations and experiments, historical attempts and mistakes. It is a mature, universal creation, having a big influence on the whole humankind. It is not fossil. Restriction is still developing. It needs its young leaves and shoots as much as it needs hidden roots. It also needs a trunk being between them, that is, a natural synthesis of the old and the new. A tree can be cut down. It can have its roots poisoned and can die. However, planting a new tree, waiting for its growth and fruit – is a long-time process. Therefore, destroying the base of our civilization and attempts of replacing them with other, incoherent, loosely sketched concepts – has always been and will always be paid with lots of suffering and destruction. It was proven best by this XX century and two terrible ideological projects: communism and Nazism.
As it resulted from the words of the Polish President, today our community is also endangered, but he emphasized: ‘It is also a lesson for us in the future: that we, Poles, can do great important things, if we only work together and according to our common values’.
Some media stopped at this sentence, omitting another one: ‘Values, whose source is an inseparable relation of Polishness with its Christian roots. Only these values can build this community’.
AA
„Niedziela” 17/2016