The cross in Smolensk

Thursday 16 September the wooden cross standing as a token of mourning after the plane crash that killed Polish president Lech Kaczynski along with 95 personalities and State dignitaries, was removed from the parvis of the presidential palace in Warsaw to the inside chapel. In the days following April 10 (the day of the Smolensk tragedy) thousands of Poles gathered before the cross to pay homage to the victims of the accident, in respectful commemoration of one of the Country’s most serious accidents. Since July, ensuing early presidential elections, the political situation in the Country went back to normal, but since then the cross has become a political “hostage” and the symbol of the complaints by members of the opposition Civic Platform party. Public prayers held in front of the seat of the head of the State, amplified by the media, led the Polish episcopate to repeatedly call for the dutiful respect of the religious symbol and propose that it be placed in appropriate premises, in spite of opposition from certain areas of society. At the end of August the Primate of Poland, Msgr. Jozef Kowalczyk, agreed to answer the questions of SIR Europe regarding the delicate question of the cross placed in the grounds before the presidential palace and Polish Catholicism. The dispute regarding the cross in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw indicates widespread lack of respect for the authorities. Do you think that this attitude could be the result of Nazi-fascist occupation and of many years of Communist rule?“The revolt against authorities, taken the ancient meaning of auctoritas, is a very unusual phenomenon in modern culture. There have also been attempts to downsize John Paul II’s role by replacing his charisma with public authorities. The long years of real socialism have taught how to humiliate human dignity. An example is the so-called promotion of women, which under Communist rule consisted in sending women as tractor-drivers, dressed up in bulky cardigans, and forcing them to asphalt roads. Such humiliation however was not only directed against women. It involved culture as a whole along with the system of commonly recognized values. This situation left its traces. Father Jozef Tischner classified those bearing these marks as a sort of Homo Sovieticus. In fact, we cannot deny that we have been blemished by that scar. We lived in a period when everyone was forced to see things through the lenses of Socialism, which was from representing authentic values. Although we had opposed such practices, we still bear the marks. This is probably why today we find it hard to discern. But by principle we defend everything that is truth and faith”. The many people praying before the cross in front of the Presidential offices claim they want to defend it in the name of the victims of Smolensk and also from current president Bronislaw Komorowski… “When John Paul II told us ‘Defend the Cross’, he wasn’t referring to the defense of two pieces of wood put together and not officially consecrated. Rather, he referred to the redeeming value of the Cross, the defense of the faith. Today cynical individuals seek to exploit the strong sense of sacrum of the Polish people, and use the cross as a hostage to promote political forces through blackmail. This is not the defense of the cross. It’s real and true profanation. We can only but regret that this symbol, which bears utmost importance for Catholics and for our Orthodox and Protestant brothers is used as a tool for political barter, which several groups use to achieve their mundane goals”.Polish Catholicism has special features which differentiate it from the religiousness of other populations. How do you explain it? “To understand Polish Catholicism it is necessary to consider the history of our Country. Since 1775 Poland disappeared from the map of Europe for 123 years. When foreign powers eliminated the State of Poland the Church became everyone’s homeland. The Church preserved the identity and the cultural heritage of the entire nation. The Poles thus realized that the Church does exist not only in its religious and prayer dimension but also as the symbol of the State, in its spiritual dimension and not in the territorial one. Thus was the case also during the Second World War and under the Communist regime. At the time of Solidarnosc it was the Church that called for religious freedom, respect of the human person, the rights of workers and social justice: values recognized by Church Magisterium. In order to understand Polish Catholicism and the reason for the strong rootedness of the repository of faith within the hearts of the Poles it is necessary to acknowledge the afore-mentioned historical and spiritual reality whereby Catholicism became the unifying and mobilizing national force”.