The Black Madonna of Częstochowa looks much like other Eastern religious icons, with its deep golden halos and sombre colour palette.

But the painting, whose origin is still unknown, has come to represent not only Catholicism in Poland, but also Polish national pride.

Each year, more than 120,000 pilgrims make the journey to the shrine to pay homage to an image once described as the "Queen of Poland".

In the late 1980s, the face of the Black Madonna appeared on Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa's lapel.

Pilgrims risked their lives to travel on foot to the monastery during the German Nazi occupation of Poland, and a rosary made from concentration camp beads is on display as one of many relics of the nation's painful past.

An attempted robbery of the icon in 1430 left two slashes on the Virgin Mary's face, reminding its viewers of what the icon and its home country have been through.

For Renata Zabłocka, 49, raised in a Catholic family in small-town southeastern Poland, the church was the centre of public life. "Everything revolved around the church," she says - cultural events, social life and shared values.

But now she has stopped attending weekly mass on Sundays, even though she still describes herself as a believer in God. She says she felt "forgotten and judged" by the church, which used to be her main mechanism of support, after she divorced her husband of 20 years last year.

"When I needed help, no one came to check if I was okay," she says. "I can't say that I'm no longer faithful, but my thinking on certain issues has changed."

Poland has been experiencing increasing scepticism towards the Catholic church in the past few years. That phenomenon is most visible among the young and in big cities.

According to data from CBOS, a state research agency, today less than 25% of young Poles regularly practise their religion, down from around 70% in the early 1990s.

"In big cities like Warsaw, church attendance is around 20% of what it once was", says Franciszek Mróz, a professor of geography at the Pedagogical University of Kraków specialising in religious tourism. But he also notes that, even in small villages, that figure is around 80%, indicating a decline in conservative rural areas.

However, falling involvement with the Catholic church as an institution does not necessarily mean that Poles are losing their faith in God.

CBOS data show that, among all Poles, weekly religious practice has declined from almost 70% in the early 1990s to 42% now. The church's own figures tell a similar story. Read more

"Hitler is dead but Putin is alive and he is repeating history with the Ukrainians," declared Stanislaw Fidurski, a 95-year-old retired colonel at Friday's march, which was led by four hussars dressed in historical costumes.

He said Poland could form a larger state with Ukraine — an idea supported by two septuagenarians Marek and Piotr who said it would help Warsaw to "resist Russia". Read more

With Poland in the middle of a huge refugee crisis, Bishop Krzysztof Zadarko is asking "where's the support?"

Millions of Ukrainian refugees have been pouring across Poland's border since the 24 February Russian invasion.

There's been no support at all from the EU and other member countries, Zadarko says.

Zadarko, who chairs the Polish bishops' council for migration, tourism and pilgrimages, says systemic and long-term help is needed.

Just why this should be is a mystery to him.

He also sees an urgent need for Poland to get organised to deal with what is becoming an established problem.

"It is necessary to create a systemic, long-term and structural aid secured legally and financially — a programme based on a coherent migration policy," he says.

Some facts

• Since 24 February, over six million people have fled Ukraine. Thousands arrive each day.
• Over three million refugees have sought sanctuary in Poland, which has 38 million citizens.
• This is Europe's biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
• Poland has been a member of the EU since 2004. The EU includes 27 member states.

Aid from the Catholic Church

"The scale of humanitarian aid provided by the Catholic Church in Poland is enormous" says Zadarko.

"There is no parish that would not join in the aid — whether by accepting refugees or organising collections of money and in-kind donations.

"As the Church, we strive to understand and fulfil the words of Jesus: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.'"

He went on: "The whole society is involved in helping. We all feel the same desire to help the poor and the needy."

International aid volunteers

"It is important to note the very large participation of volunteers from all over the world, especially at the reception point," says Zadarko.

Everyone has become a volunteer in Poland since February, he says. At the same time he is concerned Poland still lacks a professionally organised volunteer network.

It's almost three months after the outbreak of war, after all.

"Spontaneous help, which has become today a formula, even a brand of our form of assistance, is good for a short time," he says.

"We can appeal for solidarity and perseverance in this help which is very much needed today, because the natural condition of society is weakening and exhausting, it encounters the obstacle of burnout and fatigue."

What's needed though is long-term support for Ukrainian refugees living in Poland, he stresses.

"We will continue to appeal not to forget about those who are already among us today, but also about the thousands of people who reach us every day from Ukraine."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: The Times of Israel

The UN refugee agency says by March 14, almost 1.8 million people had entered Poland from Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24.

The Council of Major Superiors of Congregations of Women Religious (the Major Superiors) in Poland says as at March 14, sisters in 924 Polish Catholic convents and 98 in Ukraine were offering "spiritual, psychological, medical, and material help."

All of the nearly 150 religious congregations operating in Poland and Ukraine have responded.

Some are helping a few people, while others have offered assistance to as many as 18,000.

The sisters' work includes almost everything - from transporting people from areas affected by war to providing mother and baby classes.

One of their bigger tasks involves organising housing for the refugees.

To date, the Major Superiors say 498 convents in Poland and 76 in Ukraine have organised housing. About 3,060 children, 2,420 families and 2,950 adults have received shelter so far. In addition, 64 Catholic institutions offer 600 places for orphans.

Besides these, there are 420 institutions with places for around 3,000 mothers with children.

Elderly and disabled people are also among those who have found shelter in institutions run by sisters.

The Major Superiors say the religious sisters have also been helping prepare and distribute hot meals, food, sanitary products, clothing and blankets.

They have also been helping the newcomers find work in Poland, creating additional jobs in their centres, coordinating assistance to refugees at aid headquarters, helping Ukrainian children enrol in Polish schools and serving as Ukrainian language translators.

Other assistance religious communities are providing includes constantly collecting food and hygiene products to be sent to Ukraine, given directly to refugees in Poland or to houses run by congregations.

The congregations also make financial donations and transmit funds through their foundations.

Poland, a country of 38 million people that borders both Russia and Ukraine, was already home to an estimated two million Ukrainian workers before the war began.

Source

• CNA
• Image: Vatican News

The Catholic Church in Poland is among those stepping up to welcome and care for for them and is encouraging all Poles to do the same.

Poles as one are responding with open arms.

The result: every town in Poland has Ukrainian refugees.

Extraordinarily, despite the million-plus refugees, there is not one refugee camp in the country.

The Poles have seen to it that there's no need. They're housing them themselves.

Right from the moment the refugees enter Poland they are welcomed with a greeting from the Border Patrol: "You are safe now."

One refugee describes her journey to Poland saying: "It was scary - there were planes flying over our heads. Some of our friends had to stop on the way because there was a shooting in the fields."

Then she crossed the border. "Here in Poland, I really felt what fraternity is" she says.

Bishop Andrzej Jeż of Tarnów is one of those hosting a growing number of people.

Last Friday he had a family of four, then on Saturday another family arrived.

Kraków hotelier Jerzy Donimirski is also hosting refugees. A Catholic and member of the Order of Malta, he has 45 living in his 4-star hotel.

Besides hosting refugees, the Church is helping in other ways.

Dominican Sisters from central Poland, for instance, are officially running a humanitarian corridor with trucks moving regularly between Poland and Ukraine, where their sisters serve near L'viv.

"We load trucks of food and supplies, and a minivan always accompanies them - it has several seats. They never go back [from L'viv] empty. We take those that want to flee," one says.

While Poland has opened its doors to those fleeing Ukraine, a constant influx of refugees may become challenging soon.

"It is only the beginning," says Bishop Krzysztof Zadarko, head of the Council for Migration of the Polish Bishops' Conference.

"Poland needs to work immediately with migration experts from other countries because, with what we still see in Ukraine regarding war devastation, we need to be ready for many more refugees."

Donimirski agrees. Hosting 45 people isn't easy, even for a hotel owner.

He's had to ask for help to feed them.

"But we need systemic help and for sure, after a month, we will have to think of relocating those families to apartments and more permanent places of stay so that they can integrate fully."

Despite the warm welcome, Ukrainian families would rather be at home - if their homes haven't been destroyed in the meantime.

"One day you just wake up and the life you had to this moment is gone," one woman says.

"And then you realise the most precious thing you have is the people you love and can take with you."

Source

• Crux Now
• Image:ReliefWeb

"Today all of humanity has been placed in danger — that the powerful have a right to impose themselves on whomever they wish, with no regard for the rule of law," he said.

"It is our natural right and sacred duty to defend our land and our people, our state and all that is dearest to us: family, language and culture, history and the spiritual world," he said.

Shevchuk said Ukraine "is in danger again," and said "the treacherous enemy" has broken the basic norms of international law, "stepped on Ukrainian soil, bringing with him death and destruction."

"At this historic moment, the voice of our conscience calls us all as one to stand up for a free, united and independent Ukrainian State," he continued.

"The history of the last century teaches us that all those who started world wars lost them, and the idolaters of war brought only destruction and decline to their own states and peoples."

Archbishop Mokrzycki said the Catholic Church all across Ukraine was preparing for the possibility of a wave of Ukrainians being displaced from their homes, especially from the eastern area.

"We are ready to welcome people into our churches and provide them with food and water," he said. "We have organised first aid courses for priests, religious and laity, so that in an emergency they can care for the wounded".

Some eastern Ukrainians have already moved to the west, he said, and "we have already rented some empty houses that will provide accommodation for them".

The archbishop added that the prayers and support of people around the world had profoundly moved him.

"We are most grateful to the entire universal Church, and especially to Pope Francis who has issued a worldwide appeal for prayer for Ukraine," he said.

"I would like to repeat this appeal: Continue this prayer. Keep on praying, until the final peace comes".

Meanwhile, Catholics in Poland are being asked to continue praying for peace but be prepared to welcome refugees from Eastern Ukraine.

Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, president of the Polish bishops' conference, has appealed to Poles to help the refugees.

People displaced from their homes are already arriving in the western part of Ukraine.

A representative of Catholic Relief Services said the US Catholic international aid organisation is also prepared to help.

The Polish archbishop made his appeal on the bishops' conference website after news that Russian-allied separatists in Eastern Ukraine had increased artillery and mortar attacks.

Reports say a kindergarten was hit last Thursday while the children were in the building. According to reports, none of the children was injured, but three staff members were.

"Everyone has the right to live in peace and security. Everyone has the right to seek for themselves and their loved ones conditions that will ensure a safe life".

He said Poland has been opening its doors to newcomers from Ukraine for some time. They "live among us, work with us, pray in Polish churches and study in Polish schools".

Supporting Caritas Poland and their local parish Caritas agencies to help refugees is one way Poles can help.

Caritas is making plans to increase refugee support programmes "in case of further escalation of tension and military action", Gadecki explained.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• CNA
• CNA
• Image: BBC

The two-year synodal process is a consultative phase involving Catholic dioceses around the world.

Chosen by the Polish bishops' conference president Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, Professor Aleksander Bańka is the first lay person to represent the Church in Poland at an inaugural session.

He is one of 10 representatives from Europe at the official opening. The others include the president of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, two bishops and seven lay people.

The Vatican says immediately after its official opening in Rome next moth, the two-year "synodal path" will begin in dioceses throughout the world.

Continental assemblies will follow the diocesan consultations. The process will culminate in the October 2023 synod of bishops at the Vatican.

The synod theme is "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission".

The Synod of Bishops general secretary, Cardinal Mario Grech, says the synod has been transformed "from an event into a process."

Bańka, a husband and father, works at the Institute of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Silesia.

He specializes in the history of philosophy, the philosophy of religion and the intersection of philosophy and psychology with Christian spirituality.

One of his particular concerns is the decline in young Polish people's participation in the Church.

"Often actions undertaken within the scope of the New Evangelization are taken tongue-in-cheek or even with hostility or as an oddity, clutter spreading, or cheap entertainment," he wrote in an article in 2017.

"Often it is connected with some reluctance towards new communities and Church-renewal movements, which in some parishes are — speaking openly — unwelcomed or treated as an element of local parish color."

"Potential hidden in these communities remains undiscovered and unused; it even happens sometimes that the laity organizing in a given community — mainly young people — are left to their own means."

His experience includes serving as chairman of the Commission for the Laity during the second synod of the Archdiocese of Katowice.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: eKAI

The court said it did not see evidence of a crime.

The activists had been charged with producing and distributing posters of an altered icon of the Mother of God of Czestochowa - also called the "Black Madonna of Czestochowa."

They had changed the icon so the Madonna and Child sported rainbow images as halos.

They distributed the posters in the Polish city of Plock in 2019.

They told the court their aim was to protest what they saw as the hostility of Poland's Catholic Church toward LGBT people.

When the trial opened in January, one defendant said the poster distribution was spurred by an installation at the city's St. Dominic's Church that associated LGBT people with crime and sins.

She said she was arrested in an early morning police raid on her apartment in 2019, held for several hours and questioned over the posters.

A court later said the detention was unnecessary and ordered damages of about $2,000 awarded to her.

All three defendants faced up to two years of prison if found guilty of desecration.

Poland's desecration provision in its penal code "leaves a door open to use it against people who think a bit differently," one activist said.

The conservative Life and Family Foundation, which brought the case, says it plans to appeal the ruling.

"Defending the honor of the Mother of God is the responsibility of each of us, and the guilt of the accused is indisputable," the group's founder said on Facebook.

"The courts of the Republic of Poland should protect (Catholics) from violence, including by LGBT activists."

However, the court found the activists were not motivated by a desire to offend anyone's religious feelings. Rather, they wanted to defend those facing discrimination, Polish media reports.

An LGBT rights group, Love Does Not Exclude, welcomed the ruling as a "breakthrough."

"This is a triumph for the LGBT+ resistance movement in the most homophobic country of the European Union," it said.

Because of all the attention, the altered icon has received, it is now a very recognized image in Poland, one sometimes seen at street protests.

The case was seen in Poland as a freedom of speech test. The country's "deeply conservative government" has been pushing back against secularization and liberal views.

Source

• AP
• Image: Get Your Guide

Until soaring coronavirus numbers and a looming national lockdown made it almost impossible, up to a million people nightly defied a government ban on protests, taking to the streets from Warsaw to Łódź, Poznań to Wrocław, Gdańsk to Kraków.

The protests, led by the grassroots women's movement Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet (OSK, or All-Polish Women's Strike), have shocked the ruling conservatives and created a new political faultline that, analysts say, could spell more serious problems for the party.

"I think it is a whole backlash against a patriarchal culture, against the patriarchal state, against the fundamentalist religious state, against the state that treats women really badly," said Marta Lempart, a 41-year-old lawyer and one of OSK's leaders.

The group has outlined areas extending far beyond abortion rights where it says urgent change is needed: stronger and wider women's and LGBTQ+ rights in general; the separation of church and state; more support for healthcare, small businesses and education; full judicial independence.

The ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) "should be protecting us, the citizens of Poland", Lampert told the media this week. "They are turning their backs on us, talking just to the Polish government. They should be talking to us."

Predominantly Catholic Poland already had one of Europe's strictest abortion laws when, on 22 October, its constitutional tribunal ruled that terminations in instances of severe foetal anomalies, which accounted for all but about 30 of the 1,110 abortions performed legally in Poland last year, were "incompatible" with the constitution.

The decision by the court's 15 pro-PiS judges, many of them appointed unlawfully, would allow terminations only in instances of rape, incest and when the mother's life is at risk - a tiny fraction of cases. Women's groups estimate an additional 200,000 Polish women have abortions either illegally or abroad each year.

The ruling sparked an immediate reaction. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, mainly women and young people, took to the streets with banners proclaiming "I wish I could abort my government", "This is war" and "Women's hell".

On Tuesday - apparently in response to the protests - the government indefinitely postponed publishing the court's decision in the official journal, preventing it from coming into effect (and raising major constitutional questions if it tries to do so later).

But the genie may be out of the bottle.

While surveys show more than 60% of Poles support the status quo on abortion, barely 15% back the proposed changes.

This has mobilised a generation not previously engaged with politics and stoked existing, wider anger at what many see as the steady erosion of democratic norms since PiS came to power in 2015.

Maria Kowalczyk, 38, a beauty journalist, said at a protest in Warsaw that Poland was "years behind.

In this country, because of the politics and doctrine of the government and the religious fanatics, someone who is different is worse. The way they treat LGBT people, migrants, all minorities - and now women … Society has had enough."

Julia Estera, 30, a performance and makeup artist from Łódź, said Poland was no longer a free country.

"We are a religious state where we are all demanded to think in one possible way." Bianka, 15, and Maja, 16, said Poland's youth would not back down. "We don't want to live in a country where we don't have a choice, where everything is decided for us." Continue reading

While all Catholic bishops must offer to retire when they turn 75, it is "highly unusual" for the pope to accept their resignation on their actual birthday.

Doing so to Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz of Gdansk (pictured) suggests that Francis wanted to signal his seriousness about ending the culture of concealment within the Polish church hierarchy.

The pope has named a temporary administrator to run the Gdansk archdiocese.

Glodz was featured in one of the devastating recent documentaries about priestly sex abuse cover-up in Poland.

In the 2019 film "Tell No One," he is shown eulogizing a known pedophile priest at his funeral despite knowing of his abuse.

Abuse survivors also included Glodz in a report identifying 24 current and retired Polish bishops accused of protecting predator priests.

Francis was given the report on the eve of his 2019 global abuse prevention summit.

This is the second time in two months that Francis has replaced a Polish bishop on their 75th birthday.

A third Polish bishop has now been sidelined, pending a Vatican investigation into allegations he covered up for predators.

The Polish bishops conference announced the news of Glodz's resignation in a statement, stressing that Glodz had turned 75 and "thus he has reached retirement age and is retiring." The statement provided highlights of his biography.

Anne Barrett Doyle of the online abuse resource Bishop Accountability says Francis's decision to remove Glodz on his actual birthday was encouraging and signals "his strong disapproval."

Nonetheless, he could do more, she says.

"If he is outraged by the archbishop's coddling of abusers, why not publicly denounce him?"

"Why not explicitly fire him rather than give him the dignity of retirement?"

In her opinion, true accountability would require Glodz to "incur penalties proportional to the pain he caused."

Source

• National Catholic reporter
• Image: Taiwan News

Bishop of Kalisz, Edward Janiak must stay away while he is being investigated for covering up sexual abuse cases. He will retain the title of bishop for the meantime, however.

The cases Janiak allegedly covered up featured in a clergy abuse documentary that shocked Poland's Catholic Church.

The Vatican has announced that Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś of Łódź will be the apostolic administrator "sede plena" of the Diocese of Kalisz in central Poland.

"Sede plena" is a term used to signify that a see is still occupied by a bishop.

In May, an online documentary "Playing Hide and Seek," exposed two cases of paedophile priests that Janiak handled.

The first case occurred when Janiak was an auxiliary bishop of Wroclaw, while the second occurred since he was appointed bishop of Kalisz, which he has headed since 2012.

The documentary featured court testimony about Janiak's role helping transfer a priest to another diocese, even after a criminal investigation had begun.

The priest was subsequently convicted and defrocked.

The second case the documentary covered alleged a cover-up of another priest during Janiak's time as Kalisz bishop.

The documentary suggests Janiak didn't follow the Vatican's own in-house rules to report allegations against the Kalisz priest to the Holy See. He only made his report after the case gained media attention, it alleges.

The diocese says they have not had any formal complaints from victims, though the parents of one victim did.

An audiotape of Janiak berating the parents in 2016, provides one of the more chilling moments of the documentary.

The film was the second on Polish clergy abuse by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski.

Their first one "Tell No One," (2019) triggered a national reckoning in a country where there is no higher moral authority than the Catholic Church and its clergy.

Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the Primate of Poland, apologised after seeing the documentary and at least one cleric left priestly life.

Polak May wrote to the Vatican in May reporting the allegations against Janiak and asking for an investigation be carried out. Poznan Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki was tasked with carrying out a preliminary investigation. He has said he wouldn't comment while it is underway.

Later in May, Kalisz's leading priests were asked by a local bishop to sign a letter to the Vatican pledging confidence in Janiak.

Most refused. Instead, they sent a letter asking for Vatican clarification into the allegations against him.

In early June, Janiak was hospitalized with the suspicion he had suffered a stroke. Further examination showed he was very drunk. It said he was taken home by friends after being given an IV.

The diocese did not comment directly on the report, but said the Polish bishop who is 67, had been diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and often required medical care.

On June 15, the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza published a leaked letter from Janiak to fellow Polish bishops criticizing Polak for reporting him to the Vatican.

Source

• catholic News Agency
• US News
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The documentary "Hide and Seek" by Marek and Tomasz Sekielski, which was watched by almost 7 million people on YouTube within a week, continues to make waves in Poland.

The film tells the story of two brothers who were sexually abused by a priest in the diocese of Kalisz in central Poland in the 1990s. They were 7 and 13 years old at the time. The documentary makes it clear that the local bishop, Edward Janiak, knew about the abuse and swept the scandal under the carpet. The filmmakers uncovered dozens of other cases in the diocese as well. Read more

Tomasz and Marek Sekielsk's documentary "Playing Hide and Seek", went viral on YouTube after its release on Saturday.

The documentary overshadowed centenary of the birth of popular Polish Pope, John Paul II, that was celebrated this past weekend in Poland.

"Playing Hide and Seek" provides a detailed account of the story of two brothers sexually abused by a priest, tacitly protected by Janiak.

Within about 36 hours, YouTube records show the documentary had been viewed 27.5 million times and attracted over 45,000 comments.

Janiak, who is still practicing as a priest, has not commented directly on the allegations.

After seeing the documentary, Poland's most senior Catholic archbishop Wojciech Polak notified the Vatican of the accusations against the Polish bishop.

Polak's referral will test procedures introduced by the Vatican last year to hold to account bishops accused if they turn a blind eye to child sex abuse.

The Vatican is now expected to assign an investigator to the case.

Polak also broadcast a message saying the documentary "... shows that procedures concerning the standards of protection of children and youth have not been fulfilled."

"As a delegate of the Polish Episcopate for the protection of children and youth, I am requesting the Holy See, through its Nuncio, to start a procedure ordered by motu propio (an apostolic letter - editor's note) from Pope Francis on the omission of the activity required by law," he added.

The Kalisz curia has spoken out in Janiak's defence, saying the parents of one of the alleged victims portrayed in the film did not follow the right procedure.

"The recording in the film doesn't show the whole conversation. It doesn't show the part where we say that the parents should've expressed their concerns to the prosecutor immediately," the curia said in a statement.

Last year the Sekielski brothers released another film that suggested known paedophiles were deliberately shifted between parishes in Poland.

"Tell No One" had around 23.5 million hits on YouTube. It sent shock waves through the Catholic Church and prompted a series of reactions at the top of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

However, the issue appears to have faded from public view since then.

Both films look at the issue of the responsibility of the Catholic hierarchy.

A third documentary is planned on the rôle of the Polish pope, St John Paul II covering up the crimes perpetrated by priests.

Source

• The Brussels Times
• Reuters
• Image: DW

Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, who is the head of the Polish bishop's conference, said ensuring not too many churchgoers gather at once is in line with the Polish government's COVID-19 restrictions. A third of the Polish population attend Mass.

Concerned at the effect of these restrictions, Gadecki proposed his 'more masses for fewer people' option.

"Just as hospitals treat illnesses of the body, the church is there to heal illnesses of the soul. That's why it's unimaginable that we should not pray in our churches," he said.

"With regards to the demands of the Chief Sanitation Inspector for there not to be mass gatherings of people, we ask for the enlargement - if possible - of the number of Sunday Masses in churches, so the appropriate number of churchgoers can participate in a Mass at a given moment."

While the virus is still spreading, Gadecki suggested the elderly and sick could stay at home and follow Sunday Mass via television and radio broadcasts.

In Europe's worst-affected country Italy, bishops have cancelled weekday Masses in the norther parts of the country. Such a step has never been taken before.

Poland has 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far.

Source

• US News
• Image: Catholic News Agency

At the same time the bishops said the Church will continue speaking out against the "deadly sin" of homosexuality.

"Violence and contempt can never be justified or accepted - acts of aggression should face unequivocal disapproval", the Conference spokesman said.

"In faithfulness to our Saviour, however, and out of love for our brothers and sisters, we must also proclaim the Gospel, without avoiding the demands it imposes or failing to identify a deadly sin".

The priest was reacting to an Equality Parade by several hundred LGBT campaigners in the eastern city of Bialystok, which was disrupted by a larger group of right-wing counter-protesters, forcing police to use teargas and baton charges.

A Bialystok council leader, Sebastian Lukasiewicz, blamed the city mayor for allowing the Parade, which resulted in police using batons and tear gas against protesters.

He thanked the nationalists for "defending" the city's cathedral and "identifying with traditional values".

However, Anna Dryjanska, a gay rights campaigner, said the cathedral had never been in danger and the counter-protesters, who also threw bottles and stones at police, had "only attacked people".

In Poland LGBT people are often subject to discrimination.

The Church opposed clauses in a 1997 constitution barring discrimination on grounds of "sexual orientation" and has since rejected repeated requests for a pastoral service for homosexuals.

The church also opposed same sex civil partnerships and backed the exclusion of LGBT staff from Catholic schools.

Before the Equality Parade, Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda told Catholics that LGBT campaigners had "insulted Christian values, profaned sacred symbols and uttered blasphemies against God" during previous rallies.

He called on Catholics to refuse to accept "the depraving of youth" and "the offending of religious feelings with impunity".

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: Yahoo News

The documentary includes harrowing testimonies from victims and has been viewed more than 18 million times.

Convicted paedophiles could now face up to 30 years or even life in prison.

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of the longer sentences which will not only permanently incarcerate dangerous paedophiles but also remove a statute of limitations on prosecuting the most drastic cases of child sex abuse.

The changes were introduced by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government, which is closely allied with the Church in the devoutly Catholic country.

The ruling Law and Justice party says the legal amendments have been in the works for months and the proposal will now go to the senate.

The proposed amendments were introduced just 10 days ahead of the election race for the European Parliament.

The PiS is currently polling neck-and-neck with the European Coalition, a collective of opposition parties.

Poland's prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki says it is the government's "strong conviction" that suspended sentences should not apply in cases of paedophilia.

"It is difficult to imagine a more serious offence than the betrayal of the trust of the youngest people, those placed under someone's protection.

"Therefore, people, who are guardians in various institutions, including all secular and Church institutions, all such persons will have to bear even more severe penalties."

The documentary "Only Don't Tell Anyone" by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski has been viewed nearly 18 million times since it was posted on YouTube on Saturday.

The Apostolic Nuncio to Poland, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, has expressed "the closeness and solidarity of the Holy Father towards victims of abuse,".

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who is the Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will visit Poland in June at the request of the Polish Bishops.

It includes secret camera footage of victims confronting priests about their alleged abuse. Some of the priests admit to the abuse.

Police have prevented the documentary from being projected on to the façade of churches in Warsaw and Gdansk.

Source

• Vatican News
• European Views
• BBC
• Image: DW

What draws Biedron to the statuettes of Mary is their diversity, while they all carry the same message of hope for believers.

He is a gay atheist who wants to pull his country back into the European mainstream Read more

Father Rafał Jarosiewicz called the burning of objects thought to be connected to magic and the occult, and deemed by their owners to be an evil force, "unfortunate".

Images from the burning last Sunday at the Catholic parish of Our Lady Mother of the Church and St Catherine of Sweden, in Gdansk, were originally posted on the Facebook page of SMS z Nieba (SMS from Heaven) , a foundation that uses unconventional means to carry out religious work across Poland. Read more

The figure includes 198 priests and friars who abused minors under 15 years old and 184 clergy who abused victims between 15 and 18, according to Wojciech Sadlon, head of the church's Institute of Statistics. Read more

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki pulled out of the summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday after Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli cabinet accused Poland of cooperating with the Nazis.

In addition, Israel's acting Foreign Minister, Yisrael Katz, said: "Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother's milk.

"I am the son of Holocaust survivors. The memory of the Holocaust is not something to compromise about. It is obvious. We will not forget, and we will not forgive."

Katz then pledged to ensure that no one would change the historical truth of what happened.

"Poles collaborated with the Nazis, definitely.

"As (former Israeli Prime Minister) Yitzhak Shamir said — his father was murdered by Poles — he said that from his point of view they sucked anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk. You can't sugarcoat this history."

A statement in response from the Polish Prime Minister's office says "In recent days there have been several false accusations against the Polish state and the Polish nation."

The prime minister's office says the accusations "were partially denied, and there was an apology issued for some of them.

"But these led to further false accusations against the actions of Poles during the Second World War which neither the Polish state nor the Polish nation accepts."

Poland's Prime Minister said Katz's remarks were "racist and unacceptable".

In response to Poland's outrage, Netanyahu's office said he was initially misquoted as saying "The Poles" which would suggest the whole Polish nation was wrong.

However, the Polish government says it is not satisfied with the explanation proffered by the Israeli ambassador that Netanyahu was misquoted.

Source

• Vatican News
• BBC
• Image: Haaretz