Poland

Days of Judaism: a debt of gratitude By tradition, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity opens with the Day of Judaism (January 15-16-17) and closes with the Day of Islam (celebrated January 26). For the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference (KEP), Msgr. Josef Michalik, the Days of Judaism “are opportunities to revive the memory of Polish Jews who lived in Poland and created our peoples’ culture”. The Days, said the prelate, are also a special moment “to cultivate the memory of those who helped their Jewish brothers during the Nazi occupation of Poland”. “Failing to remember them would be dishonest towards our common history and culture”. The president of the Polish bishops underlined that “mature Christians, namely, those that are deeply rooted in faith, don’t have anti-Semitic attitudes”. On the occasion of the Days of Judaism, KEP president said expressed gratitude to Jews, for building bridges of dialogue and peace “with signs or gestures of fraternity and friendship”, as well as to all those who preserve the memory of the victims of the Shoah, that is a warning to “all individuals and populations, even those marked by cultural and technological progress, that without reference to God the sins and the crimes that were witnessed at the times of World War Two could happen again”. Christian unity: a long story of dialogue On the occasion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity the secretary of the KEP Council for Ecumenism Slawomir Pawlowski, recalled that the first ecumenical liturgy was celebrated in Warsaw almost fifty years ago, in January 1962, long before the Second Vatican Council, while the Ecumenical Council of Polish Churches was established already in 1946 (two years before the World Council of Churches – KEK). In Krakow, simultaneously with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the John Paul II Institute for Intercultural Dialogue held a seminar dedicated to the theme of the Week of Prayer proposed this year by the Churches in Jerusalem: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). The purpose of the seminar, the organizers said, is to show that the various communities of faithful, by referring to the Holy Scripture in different ways, accentuate its various passages. Developing mutual understanding is an important token of the dialogue for reconciliation. Day of Islam: an example for Europe This year, the Day of Islam celebrated in Poland on January 26, upon the conclusion of the Week for Christian Unity is titled, “Together to win over the violence amongst the believers of different religions”. The president of the KEP Committee for Dialogue with non-Christian Religions Msgr. Romuald Kaminski underlined “Catholic Poles’ and Muslim Tartars’ century-long peaceful coexistence” recalling that the most important witness in the beatification process of Saint Maximilian Kolbe (died as martyr in Auschwitz and canonized in 1982) was Muslim. Msgr. Kaminski said that in the field of interreligious dialogue Poland can set the example for other European countries and pointed out that the Council of Polish Catholics and Muslims set up in 1997 actively cooperates with Catholic-Muslim dialogue associations, promoting their joint initiatives such as the Day of Islam celebrated in Poland since the year 2000. European Union: the Christian heritage”During the Polish and Hungarian EU presidency it is important to reiterate the Christian values that unite the Countries that belong to our communities”, underlined the bishop emeritus of Gniezno Msgr. Henryk Muszynski a few days ago. “It is our duty to remind Europe of our experience in atheist countries and thus give prominence to the importance of Christian values”. On the occasion of the inauguration of EU’s Hungarian presidency, on the initiative of the ambassador of Hungary in Prague, a solemn liturgy was celebrated in the capital of the Czech Republic attended, along with Msgr. Muszynski, also by Msgr. Dominik Duka, archbishop of Prague, and by Msgr. Imre Asztrik Várszegi, abbot of Pannonhalma. During the liturgy was recalled the figure of Saint Adalbert who unites the family of European countries and symbolizes those moral and religious spiritual values which Europe strongly needs and without which it would no longer be the Europe it always has been.