Poland’s Catholic church holds Day of Solidarity with Afghans

The Catholic church in Poland has held a Day of Solidarity with Afghans. Money from collections will help provide food and clothing for refugees from the crisis-hit country.

“For several weeks we have witnessed dramatic events in Afghanistan”, wrote Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the head of the Polish episcopate. He called upon clergy and parishioners to give “prayer and material support for the suffering people of Afghanistan”.

“Many thousands of Afghans are saving their lives and health by fleeing the country, seeking help in the international community,” Gądecki continued.

Invoking Pope Francis’s calls for peace and dialogue, he said that services in every church and chapel in Poland yesterday would ask God for peace in Afghanistan and would pray for Afghans. This would be followed by collections to help them.

The money raised is to be used for long-term support of initiatives by Caritas, the Catholic church’s charity, to help migrants and refugees. This will include food, blankets, clothes and other essential items for those in refugee camps abroad as well as staying in centres in Poland.

“Working with Caritas in Pakistan, where the largest group of refugees from Afghanistan are found, a three-month humanitarian intervention of immediate aid for around 1,500 families will begin,” the archbishop wrote.

As well as the migrant and refugee centres it already operates, Caritas will launch a Poland-wide support programme covering a range of areas including spiritual, psychological, linguistic, legal and intercultural support.

“Help for refugees and migrants in Poland must be professional, targeted and long-term, not only material, but also to make them independent, allowing them to adapt to society and civic life,” Marcin Iżycki, director of Caritas Polska, told Interia.

Poland has already taken in over 1,000 Afghans that it helped evacuate from Kabul. There has also been a surge of attempted crossings by asylum seekers at the border with Belarus.

Gądecki predicted that further waves of emigration from Afghanistan are likely to increase the need for aid for people leaving the country.

In Poland, Caritas provides systematic aid to migrants and refugees in four regions, offering counselling and consulting as well as help with getting started in the country. Since 2018, the charity has helped over 14,000 migrants and refugees in Poland.

In quotes carried by Vatican News last week, Iżycki referred to the situation on Poland’s border with Belarus, where the government has since declared a localised state of emergency amid a surge in illegal crossings and an ongoing standoff surrounding a group of Afghans camped there.

“For several days we have been trying to get permission to go in there with humanitarian aid. The situation is very complicated. But every person who suffers from this crisis should receive help,” he said.

“Today in Afghanistan, on the Polish-Belarusian border, and in Poland are above all our brothers and sisters. We are all children of one Father and we are obliged to help,” Iżycki added.

Main image credit: Twitter/CaritasPolska

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.