The dispute over the planned reform of the judiciary in Poland is religiously charged. He reveals the close relationship of the PiS-government to the conservative clergy of the country.
The controversial justice reform in Poland, against the tens of thousands in the towns and cities demonstrate, with the Catholic Faith compatible? What may seem at first glance like a politically irrelevant question, for Poland is of vital importance. Because the Catholic Faith is an integral part of the Polish identity.
92 percent of the 38 million inhabitants of the country profess the Catholic Faith, every Second is regularly in the worship service, the first communion is every year a big event in the whole country. For comparison: In Germany, the proportion of Catholics is 28.5 percent.
But what the Catholic Faith is? To Pope Francis, and his mercy towards refugees, the national-conservative government, the party seems to be ‘law and justice’ (PiS) anyway, not to align – even if millions of the faithful cheered the Pontiff at world youth day in Krakow in July 2016.
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Krakow: Pope youth Engagement calls
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Krakow: Pope youth Engagement calls
As little Father, John Paul II, who was revered in his homeland long before his canonization in 2014 as a Saint. Finally, the fought not only against communism, but vehemently for freedom and democracy. His quote was that Europe should “breathe on two lungs, the Western and the Eastern” is a winged word.
The Church is silent
The closer the connection between the PiS and the Polish bishops ‘ conference seems to be. Still on 17. July their spokesman Pawel Rytel-Andrianik, announced the Church will not comment on the dispute over the reform of the judiciary. Three days later, on 20. July, called the Primate Wojciech Polak on the Archbishop in the face of mass protests to the “preservation of the principles of the democratic legal state”.
A weak gesture, Malgorzata Gersdorf, President of the Supreme Polish court. Gersdorf was appointed in 2008 by the former head of state Lech Kaczynski: “The only Institution that could be reached in Poland, the Church,” she explained in an Interview with the süddeutsche Zeitung. “But I don’t expect anything from her. It is connected to the ruling party closely. That is why she has said nothing so far, and will say nothing.”
Mass protests: in Spite of the summer holiday demonstrated in Poland’s cities of tens of thousands against the reform of the judiciary
The Silence pays for the Catholic Church in Poland. The PiS government increased state subsidies for the Church. She appreciated the voluntary teaching of religion in schools and blocked with a Parliament decision, the access to the emergency contraception “morning after pill”. And you will not be tired in their efforts to tighten the already restrictive abortion laws in the country.
“Structurally, Catholic”
For the Catholic publicist and political scientist Andreas Püttmann reform behind the PiS sought justice, something “structurally Catholic”: How in Rome, so it is oriented in Warsaw to a supposedly higher truth, instead of the democratic decision-making processes, he explained recently in Cologne Domradio.
Catholic without compromise: the Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kasczynski in the Polish Parliament
He added: “unfortunately, Catholic Tradition, in the 19th century. Century, as the popes against democracy and human rights, railed (…) In this Tradition, Mr Kaczyński and his political friends are.”
“Bulwark of Christianity”
Poland as a “bulwark of Christianity”, as the home of the “Millennium Pope” John Paul II – this common view unites the Polish bishops ‘ conference and the PiS government. It is important to fight back against the secularization of the West as well as against the supposed spread of Islam.
Even if the Polish PiS government, to portray themselves as the protector of the Catholic Church and an advocate of the national identity alike. However, more than 25 years after the fall of the Berlin wall they also lose influence. Faith changes.
According to one of the Polish publicist Jan Opielka in the TIME Supplement, Christ & Welt evaluated study, the number of poles according to the teachings of the Church has decreased since 2005, from 66 to 39 percent.
Thy will be done? On demonstrations for the PiS-government is always shown also the image of John Paul II.
Only every Second practiced, therefore, regularly Catholic rites, about 50 percent to declare a Belief “in its own way”. In 2005 it was the third in a series. Increased the number of Non-believers, in the 18 – to 24-Year-olds from six to 15 percent.
“Authoritarian and fundamentalist”
“An authoritarian party, Jaroslaw Kaczynskis ‘law and justice’, has reached out to the fundamentalist Catholicism of the Hand,” said the theologian and former Jesuit priest Stanislaw Obirek last year, in an Interview with the mitteldeutsche Rundfunk. The Church had become a political actor.
Even if the Chairman of the Polish Episcopal conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, Pope Francis support – whether the majority of the Polish clergy, conservative and call on open to select the PiS, so Obirek. “The political Situation we have today in Poland, only through the subservience of all political parties in front of the Church.”