WAKING UP IN POLISH
Lidia Dudkiewicz, The Editor-in-Chief of ‘Niedziela’
‘In ‘Niedziela’ (‘Sunday’) every week, in the permanent place, we remind a statement said by cardinal Robert Sarah: ‘God or nothing’. Recently he has used other definite and even shocking words. He said that for many Europeans ‘God is dead, and our churches are like His graves’. – The West of Europe is in the state of crisis of civilization because of rejecting God and the truth about the human being – he noted. Those words were said in Brussels. Surely, a lot of us were surprised by cardinal Sarah with his another opinion, that the Christians are persecuted the most, and not only in Near East, or in Africa but just in Western Europe. He said straightforward: - You are the most persecuted, as there are attempts to stifle or deprive your faith of sensitivity. There are attempts to kill your faith and your Christian values. You are said: live like everybody, be modern. And modernity imposed on you is based on keeping silent about God, and removing signs of His presence from the public space. Cardinal Sarah goes on saying that indeed in Africa the Christians’ throat are slit, but physical death is not the worst as moral death is worse. – There are attempts to make you agree to everything: to abortion, to euthanasia… - the African cardinal enumerates.
It must be said that straightforward that the source of all kinds of evil means going away from God. This is just Europe, built on faith in Christ, which is going away from God today. an important reflection on this issue was passed over by cardinal Sarah in October last year, when he was giving a speech in Warsaw during the International Congress of the ‘Europa Christi’ movement. We heard then: - At the beginning it might have seemed to us that Europe would be able to overcome its previous demons and that after the collapse of the Soviet empire it would enter the era of permanent peace, becoming an example of democracy, prosperity and tolerance, the source of hope for many peoples.
Unfortunately, the European Union decided not to acknowledge Christian roots of European peoples, European civilization. We notice that getting out from this state of confusion is indicated by St. John Paul II in his exhortation ‘Ecclesia in Europa’. He speaks to Europe in it: ‘Be yourself again! Be as you are! Uncover your sources again. Revive your roots’.
We hear more and more frequently that Poland should be the guard protecting Europe from a danger of its ‘silent apostasy’. But also – as we have been observing recently- Poland is encouraging new groups and even national communities to be brave in manifesting their faith. Two important religious events – the Great Penance in 2016 and Rosary till Borders in 2017 – moved hearts of millions of people not only in Poland but also abroad.
It turns out that Rosary till Borders has already been organized among the others, in Italy, in Ireland, in the USA. The rosary prayer on its borders has recently been planned by Great Britain. The prayer mobilization was announced there on 29 April 2018, 50 years after introducing an abortion bill on British Isles. The British take the rosary into their hands in order to pray for help in the fight against dangers threatening faith and in defence of human dignity. So, we are going to witness another waking up in Church, this time on the British Isles. It is clearly seen that Poland, regarding its potential of faith, is one of the most important reference points for those who perceive the world in spiritual categories. Other nations are following Poles and we trust that they are returning to God.
Translation: Aneta Amrozik
„Niedziela” 7/2018 (18 II 2018)