The courage of the truth

What is the situation of the Polish Church after the death of John Paul II? SIR Europe, through Anna Teresa Kowalewska, asked this question to the archbishop of Warsaw, Msgr. Kazimierz Nycz, who recalled that this Church was hit by a series of difficult and painful experiences. Western media spoke at length both of the verification of the priests registered as collaborators of the secret services of the Communist regime, and of the issue of Radio Maria and its director Father Tadeusz Rydzyk. Msgr. Nycz: “I want to state clearly that the mentioned problems are not directly related to the Pope’s death, nor to the verification problem or the issue of Radio Maria. These issues are very different from one another. We must also keep in mind that Communism never took over the Western world. It is hard to understand life under the conditions imposed by a regime which concealed itself behind what is just and truthful in order to exert limitations to personal freedom, ready to exploit collaborators with threats. We suffered forty years of Communist rule. When it ended, in 1989, we didn’t come to grips with the past as was the case in Czechoslovakia and Hungary”.Msgr. Nycz, what do you intend by not coming to grips with the past?“It was our opinion that these problems needed to be solved on their own. The problem of Communist services collaborators, as I view it today, doesn’t only regard the Church, since it is a National problem. We must take an honest and just stand when examining the past, considering that after fifteen years not everything can be done as envisaged in the past. The last two-three years have been devoted to this problem. The effort was not in vain. The Church contributed to the solution to that problem with a great deal of effort. Diocesan commissions were set up with the task of examining single cases of alleged collaborators. The Bishops Commission was set up at national level. We have tried to analyze the past. We asked the parties at stake to present their positions and clarify their behavior. With a certain amount of difficulties and pain the problem was solved. That verification process necessitated that truth be known and that memory be clarified and purged. As relates to Radio Maria, it’s hard to imagine that this network whose programs were addressed to the sick and elderly people no longer exists. It needs to be improved especially as relates to the social and political spheres. I hope these problems may be solved from the inside”. Polish Catholicism has a specific trait compared to Western Europe’s. How can it be transmitted to that part of Europe which also Poland belongs to? In a certain sense the specific trait of Polish Catholicism bore John Paul II as its fruit. “But this specificity also means that we cannot be compared to Spain, Portugal or Ireland. I don’t want to mention confessional States but those States where the Church for decades benefited from its relations with the State. In Poland the situation was different. During the forty years of Communist rule, and before, during the War, it was forced to defend itself from its enemy. That enemy was the State and the Power. Looking back at Poland’s history we see that for some twenty years during the two World Wars there was freedom. Before then, the Church had to defend itself from foreign powers (Russia, Prussia and Austria) which had taken over different parts of the Country’s territory. This is why the Polish Church did not enjoy the positive effects of relations with the Authorities. We still have the possibility of preventing mistakes on the part of others, we have the possibility of maintaining a living Catholicism, preserving the sound equilibriums of a democratic State. I believe that for Poland there are good possibilities that it will remain a religious society even more that it is at present”. Poland is therefore willing to give something to Europe. Among other things, it just ratified the Lisbon Treaty… “This topic should be divided in two. The first question is whether Poland gives what it does, that is us, in an adequate manner. The second is whether Europe intends to receive something. The answer to the first question, that concerns us in particular, is that we have to set an example not only of proclaimed, but of concrete Catholicism. If the Poles will prove to be good, honest, responsible, sympathetic Catholics then we will be welcomed. If we wish to proceed only speaking of Christianity, without respecting commitments, we won’t be viewed as reliable”.