In 1984, a text appeared in the Moscow press about a priest in Poland, in Warsaw, in a peculiar parish in Żoliborz, which is “actually” not a priest, and it is unknown why the Polish authorities do nothing about it. A minute later, General Jaruzelski was going to say to Kiszczak: do something about him so he could halt barking... Does this 40-year-old image remind us of anything? Don't priests present gotta face charges: he interferes in politics, he's a businessman, he's not a priest,Just individual who does something completely different...
About who Fr Jerzy Popieluszko was for the Homeland and the Church, which influenced the life and conscience of thousands of people talked ed. Paweł Lisicki – Tygodnik “To Things”, Rafał Woś – Tygodnik “Solidarność”, Marcin Gielzak – the author of the podcast “Two Left Hands”, Krystian Kratiuk – portal PCh24.pl. The debate was led by Łukasz Karpiel – the portal PCh24.pl and host of the program and channel YT "Right Straight".
– I have specified a reflection on the perception of priests in Poland in general on the basis of how Father Jerzy Popieluszka was perceived. What arguments do anticlericals usage today? They talk about priests: they interfere in politics. I think it's apparent that Father George has met with the same charge. Second, they say it's not truly a priest, it's a businessman, or a politician, or individual who does something completely different... We remember that in 1984 there was a text in the Moscow press about a priest in Poland, in Warsaw, in a peculiar parish in Żoliborz, which is “actually” not a priest and it is not known why the Polish authorities do nothing about it. A minute later, General Jaruzelski was going to tell Kiszczak, do something about him to halt him barking. Krystian Kratiuk said.
As he noted, if you look at Fr George, at how he was treated in the Church, and compare it with how he is treated today, you can clearly see that there is simply a “cult of holy peace”. And specified “God’s incendiaries” are treated, to put it mildly, with a distance. It is besides worth looking at another large priest – Fr Maximilian Maria Kolbe.
– Father Maximilian Kolbe was treated like a madman among his superiors: the generals of the order disown him, trying to push him out. Bishops say it's no of their business. He realizes his own, gathers people, mostly spiritual brothers. Fr Jerzy has very akin experiences with curia. His words are known about how he leaves the interrogation with SB, and then leaves the visit to the cardinal's superior in Warsaw erstwhile he says that the SB was all right. That they interrogated him due to the fact that they had to question him, he knew he had to anticipate it. At the same time, as he left his bishop, who for the priest should be like a father, he felt much more attacked – he said.
As ed. Kratiuk, of course, the Primate priest Joseph Glemp was right about this. Since we are talking about the relation between the priest and the bishop, as a father-son relationship, most likely the primate tried to save his boy someway – to send him to survey in Rome, to calm him down, etc.
– At the same time, how many times do we hear in the Church present that specified attitudes erstwhile 1 wants to go beyond mediocrity and not cultivate “holy peace” are pacified in a akin way, not only for clergymen in the Church, but besides for secular authors of crucial books for Catholics and so on? – he said.
According to Krystian Kratiuk, the conflict between charisma and the office in the Church was always. – He was in the 1920s, 1930s – erstwhile Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe, 1 of the favourite saints of George Popieluszko served. He was in the '80s. There it is today. It is very sad on the 1 hand that nothing changes in this matter. On the another hand, this is an highly encouraging example for us – that it is worth not giving up, even if we could rub tears after visiting the bishop. due to the fact that he cried both after visiting the bishop and after visiting the SB, only for completely different reasons. - He said.
And as he added, nowadays we are dealing in the Church with a very akin treatment of priests specified as Jerzy Popieluszko. But not only priests, but devout Catholics. And these people – undoubtedly – have their patron in the blessed priest.
Red. Kratiuk besides recalled the ceremony of Fr Jerzy, at which there were a 1000 priests. – If Fr Jerzy Popieluszko wanted to number the priests to whom he could go, as to priests in Bydgoszcz at the time, with his thoughts, with his prayer of the Rosary, then there were no 1000 of them. But there is something in the Polish people, and in Catholics, that they unite in specified tragedies. This is incredibly upbuilding. – he added.
In Paul Lisicki's opinion, priest Popieluszko can be an example of nonconformism today. This shows his attitude towards the “silent” actions of the primate. Fr. George did not give in, he did not get thrown out. 1 must remember, however, that he had the complete support of his parish priest, Rev. Theophile Bogucki.
As he said, returning to the assessment of modern times, "Today Poland is surely not Polish priest Jerzy Popiełuszko". – Using certain abbreviations, I believe that present Poland has inherited the spirit of Jerzy Urban much more than Jerzy Popiełuszko. – he said. It was the last 1 to mention to romanticist Poland, to Polish common national goals, to a sense of national community, to a division into what is good and what is bad.
– And this urban component (which Urban fought systematically, as a spokesperson for the government and memory of Father George himself, mocking, mocking), is something that has become a much more serious component of today's debate or public space than 1 could imagine... In Poland, in which we live today, all that is sublime, magnificent, majestic, national, romanticist is to be ridiculed, ridiculed, considered only an component of any hypersensitivity – he added.
According to Lisicki, the present Poland would not realize Fr Jerzy – this is simply a different nation, a different society. – If we could summon his sermons present and recreate... I'm afraid there wouldn't be many listeners to whom his words would go. due to the fact that for words like that to hit, it should be cultural. There must be a community, there must be a conviction – that even people who do not believe, however, recognise, for example, the cultural value of Christianity - He said. This was discussed by the presence at Mass of Fr Jerzy actors, politicians – a number of people, which can be described as “unbelievers – practitioners”.
– But what did they practice? What were they active in? In any cultural stereotype, in any cultural pattern that was then crucial to the general public. I think it's gone. Today, if we compare what is written about the Church today, about Christianity, about the Christian tradition, with what was written then, this spirit of Urban prevails, right? The component of standing, mocking, trampling... What do many associate with today? Not with a hero, not with a martyr, but unfortunately with pedophilia charges, right? The church is associated with any horrible, bureaucratic institution whose main intent is to exploit or make money... This is the spirit of Urban, which has penetrated, and in my opinion, unfortunately, in Polish society he has mostly won – he said.
A man of flesh and blood or a priest of God?
In the first part of the debate, its participants had the chance to share their evidence and answer the question of who for them – privately – is Fr Jerzy Popieluszko. – He is the 1 who testified at least 2 large things. The first is the power of the powerless. I mean, we see a small, weak health, shy man. The man who, erstwhile directed to a military unit in Bartoszice, was specified an invention of General Jaruzelski as the main polytour of the alleged People's Army of Poland, to direct the clerics to a peculiarly sharp unit, where they were to be in various ways abused, humiliated, in order to break out the thought of joining the clergy. It is there that we see a man who cannot cope with the hardships of this soldier's life physically. He's been bedridden for weeks after he leaves the army. But he's doing well spiritually and morally. At no phase can be broken, at no phase can be humiliated – said Marcin Gielzak.
At the same time, the guest emphasized that in Fr Jerzy Popieluszka he sees “a man of blood and bone” who “ smokes cigarettes, likes motorcycles, has a dog named Tajniak”. As he said, it gives people courage erstwhile they know that individual who did not have superhuman qualities but the strength of his own decency, the strength of his own fortitude of the spirit, was able to talk hard but besides very simple truths.
– Because erstwhile Jerzy Popieluszko said in his sermons that Poland is not an independent state, that the communist state is not a working country, that human rights, workers are being violated. He said the obvious. Therefore, in a situation of widespread intimidation of society, in a situation in which these communist lies could not be openly straightened out, due to the fact that there was no free media, there was no freedom to gather, and that was a “Revolutionary act” to tell these simple truths – he added.
For Marcin Gielzak, the figure of Fr Jerzy is besides a evidence of large patriotism. – And in this sense he can be the figure to which both Catholics and non-Catholics will appeal, on the basis of Polish patriotism. due to the fact that his Mass for Homeland was just 2 hours free Poland – he added. – To me he was just the 1 who showed the power of the powerless and the 1 who showed the strength of Polish patriotism – he noted.
Luke Karpiel referred to the aforementioned bodily weakness of Father George. – This is rather fascinating, due to the fact that there were many examples in the Church of people who showed how the thought triumphs, the spirit triumphs over the body. It comes to mind, even from akin times, the figure of Primate Wyszyński, who was very mediocre in health. The question of his ordination was reportedly questionable due to the fact that it was not known whether it was worth investing in specified a sick person. And then it turned out different. – noted the host of the consecutive Right program.
Rafał Woś did not hide that his assessment of Fr Jerzy has 2 faces – for believers and non-believers of Christ. – Well, the answer for believers is that Fr Jerzy Popieluszko, was 1 of those evidences in many past of the Church that God existed. I mean, erstwhile you read how you look at Father George's biography, even if you read his many biographies, we are dealing with a individual who was absolutely unpromising. I mean, at all phase of his earlier life, those who knew him said, "If I knew it would be a future saint, I would take a image of myself, ask for an autograph, but I didn't realize I was talking to individual who might be celebrated someday, who might be crucial someday." I had a feeling I was dealing with an average person... This is the communicative of a simple, skinny, sickly boy from a Podlasie village who stands out in neither school nor seminary nor even at the first parishes – he said.
As Rafał Woś noted, the time of Fr Jerzy had to come. Then his life changes diametrically, and his attitude brings him “to the stratosphere.”
– And suddenly, this young priest, who didn't look so promising, is everywhere to be. For he is besides in Huta Warsaw, he goes to the workers and he can talk to them... He goes to school, abruptly there is simply a protest at the Fire School in Żoliborz... They're Masses for Homeland. There was no specified thing before, and surely on this scale. And he finds a way of speaking to people, to very different—and to workers, and to artists (...) How is that possible? What's the force behind this? A believer can answer that God acted. And if a non-believer asked me... I would say that Father Jerzy Popieluszko was a kind of super hero He stressed.
The fact costs
In the debate there was a strong voice, indicating a large change in the Polish people. A change that led to a change of knowing of basic meanings – specified as the dignity of a man, which modern revolutionaries wear in the robes of genderism.
As Krystian Kratiuk pointed out, present we can see that these foundations, which we had as a Nation 4 decades ago, cannot be recovered quickly, but we can and should return to the sources of truth. – The fact on which the foundation must be built a community on which the foundation must be built full communities on which the foundation should be developed – he said.
Red. Kratiuk reached out to the final reflections of the rosary priest Jerzy Popiełuszko on 19 October, from Bydgoszcz, from the time before his martyr's death. These were reflections on the truth, among others. On the 3rd mystery of the painful Fr.
“Truth, like justice, is linked to love, and love costs. actual love is sacrificial from here and the fact must cost. The fact always unites and binds people.”
– If we talk so much about unification, about the national community... We Catholics know that the truth, the way and the life is Jesus Christ – indicated ed. Kratiuk, further quoting the Blessed:
“We must learn to separate between lies and truth. This is not easy in the times we live in. It is not easy erstwhile a Catholic is not only forbidden to fight the views of his opponent, but simply is not allowed to defend his own beliefs or general human beliefs against assaults of even the most slanderous and hurtful. He must not straighten out the falsehood that others are free to preach and to extend with impunity. It is not easy erstwhile the seeds of lies and atheism have been sown in the depths of their homeland in the last decades. It is the Christian’s work to stand by the truth, even if it costs a large deal, for the fact is paid. Only chaffs cost nothing, for wheat grain of fact you gotta pay sometimes.”
– In the mouth of a man murdered a fewer hours after those words were spoken, they sound very moving. – finished ed. Kratiuk.
