“We have demonstrated that it’s possible to achieve changes in society without bloodshed, and thanks to prayer we have been able to bury hatred and transform it into solidarity and work for the common good. We have demonstrated that the sufferings of some can arouse the charity of others”, says the Primate of Poland, Cardinal JÓZEF GLEMP , in a letter to priests and faithful published on 13 December, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the introduction in the country of martial law by the Communist authorities. Also on 13 December, Cardinal Glemp celebrated a solemn liturgy in the Marian sanctuary of Jasna Góra at Cz?stochowa. “The present day – said the cardinal – is especially a day of thanksgiving to the Lord” for the freedom we have regained. Today, he added, “we have a great task before us: that of maintaining this freedom, and of not turning it into a caricature. Freedom is the gift of the Lord, thanks to which man is able to develop himself without limiting the liberties and rights of others, to live in truth and justice, for the future of the family and of society as a whole”. Even if on the Pope had accepted Cardinal Glemp’s resignation from the archdiocese of Warsaw on 6 December, the cardinal, who celebrates his 77th birthday on 18 December, will maintain his title as Primate of Poland until he reaches the age of 80. As the new Archbishop of Warsaw, Benedict XVI has nominated the Right Rev. Stanislaw Wojciech Wielgus, hitherto Bishop of Plock. The general secretary of the Polish Bishops’ Conference Msgr. PIOTR LIBERA , has also evaluated “in a negative way from a moral point of view” the introduction of martial law in Poland, declaring that this decision was “an attack on the social order and the very foundations of democracy”; it was “an act of violence imposed on Polish society by a restricted group of Communist elite in power”. Msgr. Libera also pointed out that “there cannot be any doubt that the Church at the time declared itself on the side of Polish society that was fighting for fundamental rights. In the dark years of martial law the Church was the voice of those who had been deprived of the right to speak”. The Archbishop of Pozna?, STANIS?AW G?DECKI, commenting on the role of the Church in Poland in the 1980s, said that “during the period that martial law remained in force in Poland outside the Church there were no spaces where people could find a minimum of freedom”. The Metropolitan Archbishop of Gniezno, HENRYK MUSZY?SKI, the retired Bishop of ?owicz, ALOJZY ORSZULIK, the Bishop of Koszalin-Ko?obrzeg, KAZIMIERZ NYCZ, and the Archbishop of Wroc?aw, MARIAN GO??BIEWSKI, also underlined that the introduction of martial law in Poland had no justification.
