Polen: Brief der Bischöfe an die Gläubigen (auf Englisch)
Der folgende Brief der polnischen Bischöfe wird morgen in allen Pfarreien und Kirchen
des Landes während den Sonntagsmessen vorgelesen. Der polnische Text ist auf Englisch
übersetzt worden:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. In the recent days we
have experienced dramatic events, related to Archbishop Metropolitan of Warsaw, Stanislaw
Wielgus, resigning from office, on the day designated for his solemn installation
in the Warsaw Cathedral. We have painfully followed the accusations brought against
him in the last weeks, concerning his entanglement in the collaboration with the secret
service (SB) and the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) intelligence. This has caused
a wave of unrest and even distrust towards the new minister. Divisions in the community
of believers became apparent. We are grateful to the Holy Father, Benedict XVI for
his fatherly help in the evangelical standing up to the difficult situation which
we face. Thanks to his decision and attitude we are better prepared to live through
this unusual time courageously and fruitfully. We also thank Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk,
the Papal Nuncio in Poland, for his brotherly and competent help. On 5th
January 2007, in an appeal directed to the community of Warsaw Church, Archbishop
Wielgus confirmed the fact of the above mentioned entanglement and admitted having
harmed Church through it, as well as – in the face of a media campaign – having done
damage to the Church by denying the facts of collaboration with the secret service. We
accept with respect his decision about resignation from the ministry of Archbishop
Metropolitan of Warsaw. It is not up to us to judge a man, a brother, who has served
the Church in a faithful and zealous way, including his time as a professor and Rector
[President] of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) and then as the Bishop of Plock.
We want to support the Archbishop with our prayer in the full clarification of the
truth. At the same time regret to state that not taking into account the widely accepted
rule of the presumption of innocence contributed to creating an atmosphere of pressure
around the accused Archbishop, which did not make it easy for him to present the public
opinion with an appropriate defence, to which he was entitled.
2. We state
once again that a gloomy past from the period of a totalitarian system dominating
our country for decades continues to mark its presence. As we have written in the
Polish Episcopate Memorandum Concerning The Collaboration of Some Clergy with The
Secret Service in Poland in The Years 1944-1989, “The records kept in the IPN archives
uncover a part of the vast areas of enslaving and neutralizing the Polish society
by the security services of a totalitarian state. It is not, however, a full and only
record of the past times.” Only a critical and solid analysis of all the available
sources can allow us to approach the truth. One-sided reading of documents created
by officers of the repression apparatus of a communist state, hostile towards the
Church, can seriously harm people, destroy the links of social trust and as a consequence
prove to be a posthumous victory of an inhuman system, in which we were fated to live. The
Memorandum also states that “The Church is being accused of the intention of hiding
a truth difficult for Her, of an attempt at protecting the people responsible for
collaboration with the secret service and forgetting the victims of this collaboration.
As a consequence, the authority of the Church is being undermined, its credibility
is being weakened. All too easily it is being forgotten that in the times of communist
totalitarianism the whole Church in Poland constantly stood against the enslavement
of the society and was an oasis of freedom and truth.”
3. Therefore we repeat
once more: the Church is not afraid of the truth, even if this is a hard, shameful,
truth and approaching this truth is sometimes very painful. We deeply believe that
the truth liberates, because Jesus Christ himself is a liberating truth. The Church
has been struggling with sin inside herself and in the world, to which it is sent,
for two thousand years. Sin degrades man and distorts the image and similitude of
God in him. The Church does not carry this through under her own power. It does it
under the power of the One, who as the only one can make us free from evil. Therefore
we begin every Eucharist with a confession of our sinfulness: “I confess to the almighty
God…” This is not a void liturgical formula, but a deep confrontation with our weakness
and faithlessness before the face of the merciful God. Similarly, we ask in every
Eucharist: “Lord Jesus Christ … look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church.”
We are not afraid to confess that the Church is a community of sinners, but at the
same time she is holy and called to holiness, since Jesus Christ is her Head, living
and working in her – a Saint above all saints. It is before Him that we stand, asking
the Holy Ghost to deliver us from evil, fear and our small-mindedness. Last Sunday,
during the Lord’s Baptism feast, in Warsaw cathedral, we read the Gospel about Jesus
who joined the sinners, standing on the bank of Jordan to receive the baptism of penance.
We believe strongly that Jesus stands together with all of us on the banks of Polish
Jordan. Once more the words of Jesus bring back our hope: “Those who are well have
no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous
but sinners to repentance.” (Lk 5:31-32, NRSV). Solidarity with sinful people led
Jesus to the Cross. Thanks to this we have received His Baptism – the baptism of the
Holy Spirit and fire for the remission of sins.
4. Let us remind: “For
two thousand years the Church has opposed the evil in the evangelical way, which does
not destroy the dignity of another man. The truth about the sin should lead a Christian
to a personal acknowledgment of guilt, to contrition, to a confession of the guilt
– even a public confession, if need be, and then to repentance and satisfaction. We
cannot abandon such an evangelical way of confronting the evil. (…) The Christ Church
is a community of reconciliation, forgiveness and mercy. Inside her there is a place
for every sinner, who wishes to reform, as Peter did, and despite their weaknesses
wants to serve the cause of the Gospel” (Memorandum).
As the Servant of
God John Paul II stated emphatically, “Man is the way of the Church” (Redemptor hominis,
14) – every man, including every priest and every bishop. Fulfilling the conditions
of Christian conversion, everyone has the right to forgiveness and mercy, to join
in the life of the Church community and society. We know that many of those, who once
submitted to enslavement, deafened their conscience and compromised their dignity,
have already repented for their weakness with years of faithful service. They are
our brothers and sisters in faith!
We wish the Ash Wednesday, 21st
February 2007, to be a day of prayer and repentance of the whole Polish clergy. In
all the churches in our dioceses services to the Merciful God should be celebrated
for a forgiveness of mistakes and weaknesses in proclaiming the whole Gospel. As clergy,
we are “taken from the people”, we are a part of Polish society, which as a whole
needs to turn away from evil and make a full conversion.
5. There is a great
task of reconciliation for the Church in Poland, apart from standing in truth before
the face of God. We will not change the past, both the glorious, and the one that
we are ashamed of. We can include everything, with God’s help, in our present and
future in such a way that the power of Christ on the face of the Church is revealed.
We appeal to all the people of the Church, the clergy and the laity, to carry on the
examination of their consciences concerning their conduct in the time of totalitarianism.
We do not want to encroach on the sanctuary of any man’s conscience, but we encourage
to do everything to confront the truth of possible facts and – if need be – to adequately
admit and confess the guilt. We appeal to the people in power and members of Parliament
to ensure a usage of the materials found in the archives dating back to PRL which
will not lead to encroaching on the rights of a human person and demeaning the dignity
of man and which will make it possible to verify these materials in an independent
court of justice. It should also not be forgotten that these documents incriminate
their authors above all. Being aware of the call of Christ: “Do not judge, so that
you may not be judged.” (Mt 7:1), we ask everybody to refrain from passing superficial
and rash judgments, for they can be damaging. We mean especially those who work in
the media. May Christian conscience and human sensibility suggest them what should
be presented to the public opinion and how it should be done, always taking into account
the dignity of a human person, the right to defence and good name, even after one’s
death. We appeal to the young generation, lacking a direct experience of the era in
which the older people happened to live, to make an effort to learn the hard and complex
truth about the past times. Despite all the shadows, it is to the generations living
in those times, including the generations of clergy and their uncompromising struggle
with evil that we owe our regaining of freedom after years of Marxist ideology and
soviet patterns of political and social life imposed on us. The Church in Poland
has always empathized with its people and shared their fate, especially in the gloomiest
periods of our history. This fact cannot be changed by bringing into light, after
many years, the weaknesses and unfaithfulness of some of her members, including the
clergy. May the present time be a good time for all of us to cleanse ourselves and
reconcile with each other, restore the violated justice and regain mutual trust and
hope. May it be, above all, a time of prayer and deepening the faith in the presence
of the Lord of History among the most complicated human issues. Having trust in
the power of the Gospel we want, as your Pastors, to continue the work, already underway,
on fully checking the contents of records stored in the National Remembrance Institute
(IPN), concerning ourselves and all the clergy.
6. “Even though I walk through
the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me” (Ps 23:4). May the word of
the Psalmist accompany us in these days. We thank you, Brothers and Sisters, especially
for the spirit of prayer, which calmed down the emotions, brought about a peace of
heart and order of love. We thank you for your concern for the Church and standing
by her in the moments of trial. We believe that our current experience will contribute
to a renewal of the Church, to a greater transparency and maturity of her members.
We believe that it will help the Church to be faithful to the Gospel and look to it
for solutions of our problems, to be reborn from it, in order to be a leaven of good
and love in the world.
Having all these desires in our hearts, we call for
God’s blessing over everybody and for the intercession of Our Lady of Czestochowa,
who always reminds us: “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn 2:5).
Signed by:
Cardinals,
Archbishops and Bishops assembled for the Permanent Council and Diocesan Bishops of
the Polish Episcopate Conference meeting. Warsaw, 12th January 2007.
This
letter should be read in all parishes of the Church in Poland on Sunday, 14th
January 2007.