Christians: Faith, not NumbersIn his letter for the Prayer Week for Christian Unity ,Msgr. Tadeusz Pikus, President of the Council for Ecumenical questions of the Polish Bishops Conference, quoted from the first address of the Polish Bishops Conference for Christian Unity (1968): “Despite the fact that, compared to Catholics, the number of Orthodox, evangelicals and of the faithful of other Christian communities in our Country is very low, God doesn’t measure man’s heart with numbers but with faith, hope and love.” In this year’s message the prelate pointed out that “Poland has made consistent progress in ecumenical dialogue” and recalled the spiritual, doctrinal and practical dialogue undertaken “not only in the past, in the framework of the peaceful coexistence of the representatives of the different Churches on the territory of a multicultural Polish Republic, but also in recent times”. “The Polish Ecumenical Council was set up in 1946, before the constitution of the World Council of Churches (1948).Also the declaration of Polish Christian Churches which envisages the mutual recognition of of the sacrament of baptism, signed on January 23 2000, is exceptional, at least at European level”, Msgr. Pikus affirmed pointing to the fact that “The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January is part of Poland’s ecclesial calendar. However, in different moments of the year are held also liturgical celebrations, Via Crucis and ecumenical pilgrimages, while the ecumenical commitment of personalities from the intellectual environment deserves special mention. Since the year 2000 the Christmas initiative in favour of children took on an ecumenical imprint with the contribution of the charitable institutions: the Caritas of the Roman Catholic Church, the Diakonia of the Evangelical Churches and the Eleos of the Orthodox Churches. Particularly significant is the cooperation between the atheneums and the publishing houses. Each year Ecumenical Days for Biblical Studies are set up, while the ecumenical translation of the New Testament and the Psalms into Polish holds special meaning for Christian unity both at spiritual and intellectual levels. A broad bilateral and multilateral dialogue between Churches in under way, the Ecumenical pastoral guidelines on the mixed marriages between faithful from different Churches is the object of present studies”. Artificial insemination, artificial clashIn Poland “there is no conflict between the Polih society and the Church”, recently pointed out Msgr. Jozef Zycinski, referring to the media report which would confim such a clash, worsened by the supposed “frailty” of the Polish Church which is without guidance. According to Msgr. Zycinski the weakness of the Church in Poland “is only apparent as has been the case since the beginning, from the birth of Christ and his death on the Cross”. “We are part of the paradox of divine weakness. It is however important not to insert non-existing conflicts”, he said, stigmatizing as “artificial clash” the debate on artificial insemination sprung from a statement by Polan’d Health Minister regarding possible reimbursements by the National Health Service for expenses connected with In Vitro Fertilization. In these past days the Polish Bishops Conference held a debate on this issue, with the participation of priests, doctors, jurists and couples with fertility problems. Poland didn’t ratify yet the Convention on bioethics of the Council of Europe and participants in the debate highlighted the need for specific legislation. According to specialists, the problem of artificial insemination in Poland involves between 1 and 2 million couples, and the figures are constantly increasing. On the national territory there are 55 centres for artificial insemination but except for two run publicly, the others are private with no type of control.Solidarity to the children from PeruOn the day of Epiphany the Church in Poland celebrated its missionary day for support to the over 2000 missionaries who presently carry out their work in over 95 world Countries. Every year, the Commission of the Episcopate for the Mission assigns over 1 million Euro to subsidize the many projects in different parts of the world and for the needs of the Missionary Formation Centre, operating in the field for over 24 years, which has its seat in Warsaw. The International Centre is one of the few in the world to be devoted to the formation of religious and secular missionaries. This year in Poland the Missionary Work for Childhood began collecting funds already during the Christmas holidays organizing representations of the Nativity in many private homes. The proceeds will be employed as aid to children in Perù.
