“Christianity is the most important element uniting our Polish history,” said Kraków’s archbishop, Marek Jędraszewski, during a homily marking Corpus Christi, a public holiday in Poland.
“The spiritual unity, continuity and durability of the Polish nation has its own very specific and scientifically measurable foundation – it is its biological continuity and strength,” continued Jędraszewski, who also warned of the dangers of “the infertile or mothers murdering new life”.
The Feast of Corpus Christi, which fell on 3 June this year, sees schools and businesses close. Outdoor processions with decorated religious icons take places on streets and squares, and in some parts of the country believers dress in traditional local costumes.
During his sermon at St Mary’s Basilica in Kraków’s historic Old Town, Jędraszewski focused on Polish identity and the role of the Christian faith in it.
“The cultural power of the nation is built on the strong foundation of biological continuity,” said the archbishop, an archconservative voice in Poland’s Catholic church who has previously expressed concern that in the future “the few whites” left in Europe “will be displayed to other races like Indians in reservations in the US”.
“There is no other nation in Europe in whose history [Christianity] is so deeply entwined as it is in the Polish nation,” continued Jędraszewski. He also noted that, during periods when Poland has been occupied or partitioned, it was the Catholic church that provided “spiritual unity” to the nation.
The archbishop also criticised recent mass protests against the introduction of a near-total ban on abortion, a measure that has been supported by the church.
Quoting the late Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Jędraszewski said that “Poland cannot be a Poland without God’s children, a Poland of the infertile or mothers murdering new life”. He cautioned against “imitating the fashionable dolls who fill the theatres, cabarets and cafes”.
Speaking during the same ceremonies in Kraków yesterday, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, former secretary to Pope John Paul II, likewise condemned the “dreadful black marches organised not long ago”, a reference to the protests for women’s reproductive rights.
Main image credit: Joanna Adamik/Archidiecezja Krakowska (under public domain)
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
