Catholics protest construction of Lidl warehouse near site of Marian apparitions in Poland

Plans by German supermarket giant Lidl to build a warehouse in a Polish village that is a popular pilgrimage destination have aroused opposition from local Catholics. They have won support from a government-appointed official, who says the Virgin Mary appeared in the village 160 times.

Gietrzwałd in northeast Poland achieved its fame thanks to a reported series of Marian apparitions there in 1877. The Virgin Mary reportedly spoke to two local teenage girls. Moreover, she is said to have done so in Polish, which gave a boost to local Polish identity at a time when the area was under Prussian rule.

A century later, in 1977, the Catholic church recognised the visions as authentic, making them the only Marian apparitions in Poland to have received such confirmation. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims a year now visit the village, which some have dubbed the “Polish Lourdes”.

However, many among the faithful are now concerned about the planned development by Lidl in Gietrzwałd of a distribution centre that will cover up to 40 hectares of land. They worry that increased truck traffic will harm the area, worsen safety and increase noise, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

They are also afraid that, alongside the warehouse, Lidl will create a landfill site and that thousands of tonnes of rubbish a year will be brought to Gietrzwald, potentially polluting a holy spring that was supposedly blessed by Mary.

“The stench of German garbage will shroud the throne of Our Lady,” local residents have said, according to Gazeta Wyborcza. They have organised a number of protests against the proposed warehouse over the last few months.

In May, around 400-500 people came to a demonstration. Many held rosaries, flags and crosses. One banner portrayed the local mayor with devils horns.

But the village authorities deny that a landfill site is to be created and point out that it would not even be possible to do so under local planning laws. Lidl notes that some waste would be managed in the warehouse, but says that it will only be sorted there before being subsequently sent on for recycling elsewhere.

“On the premises, materials will not be disposed of, processed or burned,” the company said in a notice published on the website of the local municipality.

In a statement sent to wPolityce in response to a critical opinion piece by the conservative news website, Lidl noted that Gietrzwałd is just one of a few locations it is interested in and that “the main function of the planned distribution centre…will be the distribution of food products to several dozen Lidl shops”.

The firm notes that it already has 12 such distribution centres around Poland and that their aim is always to be “a good neighbour to local communities”.

However, the protesters have now received the backing of Barbara Nowak, the government-appointed official responsible for overseeing education in the Małopolska province in southern Poland. Nowak is known for being an outspoken conservative voice on a range of issues.

“Shouldn’t Gietrzwald, where the Virgin Mary appeared more than 160 times, be under the special protection of every Polish Catholic, society and authority? Shouldn’t it, like Lourdes or Fatima, be a protected zone,” tweeted Nowak. “The battle for Gietrzwałd continues.”

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Main image credit: Arkadiusz Stankiewicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.