the ten of 1st may" "
Ten new countries will become members of the European Union on 1st May this year. Eight of them belong to the former Soviet bloc (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland). The other two countries are Malta and Cyprus (for the time being only the Greek-Cypriot zone of the island). With this number of SirEurope we are beginning a review of the countries of enlargement to see how they are preparing for this historic event. This week SirEurope presents Poland. THE RISK FOR THE PEASANT WORLD – “May 1st is fast approaching and among farmers, and not them alone, the predominant emotions in my area are anxiety and uncertainty”: so says Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski of Sieldce, one of the areas with the highest concentration not only of farmers, but also of traditional industries in Poland. Throughout Poland, at the present time, brief courses of “European literacy” are being held; they are especially aimed at peasants, who must learn about the aid provided by the European Union. There are some 2 million farmers out of a total population of 38 million. Most of them are the owners of small and medium plots of land, which the previous Communist regime had failed to nationalise. The population active, directly or indirectly, in agriculture represents some 20% of the total and this explains the resistance expressed during the process of the negotiations leading up to enlargement, as also in the current phase, which is actively preparing for it. THE ARRIVAL OF FOREIGN CAPITAL – “The mood here is very cautious or even rather negative explains the bishop in the sense that many fear not only that the level of aid will be low and insufficient to support incomes, but more especially that Polish agricultural production will be seriously jeopardized by the agriculture of the more advanced Western countries”. The problem is being further aggravated by another factor: Poland, like many former Communist countries, is being invaded by capital from Western countries. These resources are being invested in the purchase of factories, banks and commercial companies long present in Poland; but no sooner are they taken over than their new owners launch processes of internal restructuring: “In this way adds the bishop of Siedlce with the arrival of foreign capital people begin to fear for the future of their own job and are already beginning to be made redundant”. RELIGIOUS VALUES Another source of anxiety is represented by the “religious values” of Poland that are being thrown into question by enlargement: “In Poland explains Msgr. Kiernikowski school curricula and educational programmes in which secularisation is all too clear are already beginning to be introduced. Draft legislation for the recognition of homosexual couples is on the cards. People are even beginning to say that those who obstinately persist in defending the view of Christian marriage risk placing themselves in contravention of the law! These are very serious problems that will not fail to have repercussions at the social and also at the religious level”. THE POLISH REALITY A few months ago, speaking on the question of the new European Constitution, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, Primate of Poland and president of the Episcopal Conference, stressed that “the future of Europe cannot be constructed without the spiritual foundation that is the truth of its past and its present”. Glemp concluded that to “exclude this fact from the text of the constitutional Treaty would be incomprehensible and would give rise to negative reactions in wide sections of Polish society; the vast majority of Poles in fact declare themselves Christian. A unique case among the former Soviet bloc countries, Poland famously represents a situation where Catholicism remains the faith of the vast majority of the population: 90.7% follow the Church of Rome, whereas Orthodox faithful represent only 1.4% and Protestants 0.8%. The organization of the Church is huge and ramifying: there are 43 dioceses and 9,966 parishes, and almost a thousand other pastoral centres (sanctuaries, seminaries, over 500 Catholic schools and universities). The pastoral care of the Polish faithful is assigned to 2 cardinals, 118 bishops and over 21,000 priests. There are 6,200 religious. The number of charitable organizations is also high: there are almost 4,000 of them. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1274 N.ro relativo : 14 Data pubblicazione : 26/02/2004
