Moratorium about abortion

Mariusz Ksiazek

In February 2008 ‘Niedziela’ joined the defence of human life from conception to natural death. The editorial board published the text of the moratorium about abortion written by the Italian journalist Giuliano Ferrara, the editor-in-chief of ‘Il Foglio’. He demands that the Universal Human Rights Declaration should be modified to include a statement about the defence of human life from conception to natural death. The editorial board of ‘Niedziela’ has begun an initiative asking people to sign the appeal, which will be sent to Dr Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General.

By the end of July 2008, the appeal concerning the moratorium on abortions, launched by the editorial board of ‘Niedziela’, was signed by 17,000 people (you must see). There were three simultaneous ways of collecting people’s signatures. The first one was to reach politicians and other public figures (including religious hierarchs), who supported the initiative by sending e-mails or letters. The second one was connected with lists of support signed by our Readers (the lists contain names, addresses, PESEL, signatures and consent to give the personal data to national and international institutions in order to support the defence of life). The third way was the possibility to support our initiative online - www.niedziela.pl. Apart from the personalities of the Church, the initiative was supported by 86 politicians and public figures, including Artur Gorski, Piotr Stanke, Jan Oldakowski, Marek Biernacki, Zdzislaw Pupa, Czeslaw Ryszka, Elzbieta Kruk, Beata Kempa, Ryszard Terlecki, Jan Szyszko, Jaroslaw Sellin and Piotr van der Coghen. 2,817 people signed our online list. The statistics containing personal data are especially interesting for our weekly. It turns out that 9,406 data concern people living in the dioceses where ‘Niedziela’ publishes its inserts. 4,702 data concern other dioceses (including the Greek Catholic Diocese of Warsaw-Przemysl and the military ordinariate). The majority of these data (3,002) comes from the Archdiocese of Warsaw, then from the Diocese of Tarnow - 1,288, from the Archdiocese of Przemysl - 1,140 and from the Diocese of Zamosc-Lubaczow - 1,015. Over 700 signatures come from the Diocese of Bydgoszcz, which is also a good result. Numerous signatures come from towns with population up to fifty thousand people. (The table at the end of the article shows the data). The first conclusion is that the biggest number of signatures supporting the appeal of ‘Niedziela’ was in the dioceses with the highest numbers of ‘dominicantes’ and ‘communicantes’ (we have taken up this subject several times). However, the results show the importance of the presence of ‘Niedziela’ in Poland and its influence on people’s consciences. We can see that the Diocese of Tarnow, where there is no insert of our weekly (‘Niedziela’ is ordered by particular parish priests and sold by ‘Ruch’ and other distributors) occupies the second place in our statistics. Paradoxically, numerous people responded to our appeal in the place where ‘Niedziela’ is not formally present. The fifth place is occupied by the Diocese of Bydgoszcz, which is the youngest diocese, created from the former Diocese of Gniezno and Wloclawek. ‘Niedziela’ had its insert there once but as you can see it has still many faithful readers. The interesting thing is who was involved in collecting the voices of support. It turns out that we have received numerous voices from whole families. Thanks to the letters attached to the lists of names we know the names of many organizations and religious associations supporting our initiative (including the Living Rosary, the Catholic Action, Radio Maryja Family). This means that piety of these groups is expressed by concrete deeds of evangelization. The action of collecting people’s signatures to support the moratorium about abortion has undoubtedly been a great success of ‘Niedziela’ since it mobilized wide circles of people of good will to back this fundamental issue, i.e. the defence of human life. We are happy that thanks to ‘Niedziela’ whole families and Catholic movements in parishes could take up this initiative, which makes us believe that the readers of ‘Niedziela’ embrace families and people who are involved in religious life. We cordially thank you for your support for the defence of unborn human life, for your numerous testimonies and warm words of support, which show that ‘Niedziela’ is approved by its Readers and that it meets their needs.

"Niedziela" 32/2008

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl