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Catholic Tradition in Poland:
Dossier for XIV Statutory General Assembly of
Una Voce International

"... with the negative changes in the daily life of the Church ... we do witness a situation in which the issue of Catholic tradition has become one of the most crucial problems to the Church in Poland today."

Contents:

THE CHURCH IN POLAND - STATISTICS

Total population: (in thousands) 36,684

Number of population declaring themselves as Catholics: 34,850 / 95% (in thousands and in %)

Participation in Sunday Masses: 53%

Easter confession: 83%

Number of archdioceses: 14%

Number of dioceses: 25

Number of dioceses of the Catholic Greek Church: 2

Number of the military dioceses: 1

Number of cardinals: 3

Number of archbishops and bishops: 98

Number of retired archbishops and bishops: 15

Number of parishes: 9,941

Number of priests 26,911

Number of seminarians: 4,614

Average number of faithful per priest: 1,295

Number of indult Masses: 4

Number of FSSPX chapels: 6

(The statistics as of 1998 Source: Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church SAC)

Speech of JAN FILIP LIBICKI

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE POLISH DELEGATION

TO THE UNA VOCE INTERNATIONALIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ROME, 12-14 NOVEMBER AD 1999

Mr. President, Dear fellow delegates,

This is a privilege for me that I can address today these words to you in the name of the Una Voce Polonia and present the development of Catholic tradition in Poland. I believe this may be of interest to you because the position of the Church in Poland is slightly different than in Western Europe, the United States or in other East European countries.

The Church in Poland during the communist years - an overview.

The Church in Poland has always been a strong institution, deeply rooted in the life of the Polish people. In the communist era she was practically the only defender of identity and freedom. For this reason and in order to avoid internal debates among Catholics which would serve the goals of the communist regime aimed at breaking the Church, the late cardinal Stefan Wyszynski decided to implement the postconciliar reforms very slowly and quietly. Because of this, in spite of the Novus Ordo Missae introduction, the face of Catholicism in Poland remained very conservative, with exceptions of small intellectual elite promoting the reforms in the most controversial manner. So was the situation until the late 80-ies. It was even reinforced with the election of cardinal Karol Wojtyla to the Holy See. As a result of all these factors the status of the Catholic church in Poland is reflected in the following statistics: 95% of Poles declare themselves as Catholics, 53% of Poles declare their participation in Sunday Masses, and 83% dlares their Easter Confession. We have nearly 27 thousand priests and more than 4 thousand seminarians. The above mentioned data together with a fact that we have no Communion-in-the-hand in Poland seem to suggest that the situation is positive against Western Europe.

The situation after 1989

In the meantime, we had growing tendencies to copy the Western examples into the Polish Church as well as the political and economic solutions were copied. These tendencies were often promoted by some of the Mass media, particularly the ones at the disposal of the liberal Catholic intellectuals. Consequently, 10 years after the collapse of communism, cassocks disappear from Polish streets, the youth associations in parishes which bring most of the vocations are dominated by charismatic and neocatechumenal movements. In some dioceses we have already lay distributors of the Holy Communion, and the new rite is getting more and more diverse and loose. Recently some of the Polish bishops made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce the practice of Communion-in-the-hand. The same people have also tried to cut out the influence that the Church in Poland exerts on public life. In response to all these changes the Catholic nation-wide radio station called Radio Maria began to focus groups of people whose major intention was to preserve the role of the Church it had so far. This movement that counts as many as 5 million faithful is a spontaneous reaction, it's very powerful, however quite disordered. When the movement fights to keep the presence of Catholicism in public life and maintain the Catholic morality and doctrine - it is, at the same time, very liberal in terms of liturgy. With those controversies in the background, we saw the beginning of the Catholic Tradition in Poland in the middle of the 90-ties. It has to be attributed mainly to the SSPX activity. Its dynamic apostolate, headed by a German priest, father Karl Stehlin, has become the focus of interest of almost every Polish Mass media. SSPX sends their publications to all Polish parishes and Church institutions, they criticise the Holy Father who enjoys a particular respect in our country. One of the reasons of Mass media interest is the role SSPX priests and faithful played in the famous action aimed at the defence of crosses in Auschwitz. If we put this together with the negative changes in the daily life of the Church I mentioned above, we do witness a situation, in which the issue of Catholic tradition has become one of the most crucial problems to the Church in Poland today. This issue is even more important if we take into account the fact that the SSPX Fraternity has been recently joined by 3 Polish priests: a Jesuit, nominated still by Cardinal Wyszynski to the post of the national priest for the Gypsy nation, a member of the Congregation of the Christians Schools Brothers, and a member of the Congregation of the Immaculate Mary. The last one, however, decided a few weeks ago to return to his convent. Today three priests, either members or supporters of the Saint Pius X Society, deliver service in 6 chapels in major Polish cities which are visited by approximately 1000 people, predominantly young and university graduates. According to credible sources, including father Stehlin's statistics, he is in touch with nearly 100 Polish priests. Every year a few new vocations arrive.

The Ecclesia Dei Movement

Now, talking about the groups of faithful benefiting from the Papal Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei of 1988, there are 4 such centres with the fifth coming in in the near future. Unfortunately, only one of them enjoys a service delivered every Sunday and on major feasts. They group mainly young and educated people who touched tradition while being in Western Europe or Found her in SSPX publications, however they want to maintain their admiration to tradition being faithful to the right jurisdiction. Some of them discovered tradition as a result of their own consideration, watching the changes that take place in the Church in Poland. There are as many as 1000 of them. Polish indult groups, like all over the world, face the problem of bishops who don't approve them or the problem of priests who deliver the service but personally are not convinced to tradition or even are not familiar with it. Also, they are often perceived as semi-lefebvrist. The last pilgrimage to Rome on the 10th anniversary of Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei publication included 70 pilgrims from Poland. The petition to cardinal Medina Estevez with a request to withdraw the official publication of the 1411 protocol was signed by 75 people, with famous representatives of politics and social life among them. Currently, Polish traditional vocations include 1 deacon and 3 seminarians in the Fraternity of Saint Peter and 1 seminarian in the Institute of Christ the King

Prospects

Talking about prospects, if we consider the level of interest in tradition among the Catholic circles in Poland, it seems to be very likely that in the upcoming years we will see a significant increase in the number of faithful to the Tradition. One of the indications was nearly 3 hour long radio broadcast in Radio Maria with FatherJosef Bisig, the superior general of the Saint Peter's Fraternity during his last visit to Poland. 'The next day the same radio station covered the Old Mass as an everyday 7 o'clock morning Mass transmitted by Radio Maria. This visit was in the headlines of major secular mass media. When it comes to contacts with Polish bishops, we can hardly draw any conclusions out of them. Although, during the visit I mentioned above, one of the Masses celebrated in Poznan by Father Josef Bisig was attended by the local Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, this fact did not bring an extension to the indult permission granted in Poznan.

Also, the growing interest in tradition developed in obedience to the right Church authority will be possible only with the support of the priests of Saint Peter's Fraternity working directly in Poland. Otherwise, this interest will either fade away or will lead many young Polish Catholics to places where they will no longer be affected by the lack of bishops' approval. Let me tell you that the second alternative has taken place most often so far. The most recent steps taken by the Holy Father addressed at the Saint Peter's Fraternity and its Superior General give us hope that this is nor the case. Thanks to these steps we are hoping that Polish bishops would be more favourable. Let's pray for it fervently.

Jan Filip LIBICKI

Author is a Representative of Una Voce Polonia at the XIV Statutory General Assembly of International Federation Una Voce Rome 13-14 November AD. 1999.