“Poland will shortly become a member state of the Union, and this event will decide its role and the significance of our nation in Europe for many years to come”: with these words opens the document of the Polish bishops, issued in recent days to herald EU “enlargement”. Dispelling the risk of EU membership feared by some sectors of Polish politics and society, the bishops invite the faithful to look “with confidence” at this step that the country is about to take, without fearing “for the loss of national identity and national sovereignty”. The commitment of Polish believers to enlargement will be marked by a “public” gesture: the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, has in fact invited the faithful to participate in a day of fasting, of bread and water, for the morning of Friday 30 April, as a spiritual gesture of preparation for entry into Europe on 1st May. Yet causes for anxiety about the future of the country are not lacking in the document either. The antidote to a weakening of Poland’s “rich national religious traditions” consists according to the Polish Episcopal Conference in the commitment “to deepening the spiritual dimension of our identity, as the precondition of a fruitful dialogue in truth and freedom” with the other members of enlarged Europe. Though taking account of the secularisation that is spreading throughout the whole continent, the bishops appeal to Poles to maintain coherence between religious values and their application in the various spheres of daily life: family, work, culture, science, business and politics. The bishops add that “to omit a reference to the Christian tradition in the Preamble of the European Constitution means depriving Europe of one of the vital elements of its historic identity”. The role of Christians in the new EU is to be conducted at all levels, including those of political and economic life, also in view of the fact that “it cannot be forgotten that the year of change in 1989, inspired by the yearning for freedom, found its vital source and power for growth in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe on the basis of a primarily religious motivation”. The task of the Polish people add the bishops consists in showing their own “originality and diversity”, based on a “spiritual identity and culture inherited from our forefathers”. In a second document the Polish cardinals and bishops reflect, in turn, on the “Responsibility of Christians to their own country”. After appealing to the unity of believers in Christ in this important moment for national life, they appeal to citizens “not to support those politicians and political forces that promote values that undermine life and the family”.
