Poland and the Faith

Next on my trip was Poland a land which I have visited so many times before. I truly love Poland, and in the words of GK Chesterton this means that I hate its evils all the more. Poland has transformed itself over the past 14 years since I first visited in 1993. Although street side Bazaars still abound, new shopping malls are beginning to compete with them, and with the Church for the hearts and minds of Poles. Materialism of Western proportions is quickly infecting Poles who are quickly gaining on Western Europeans in terms of wages and standards of living. One evidence of this is the fact that in the last few months alone the PLN Zloty has been constantly gaining not just against the weak dollar but also against the relatively strong Euro.

During my trip I was reading Joseph Piepers book on Faith, Hope, and Love--and the section on faith gave me a profound insight into the reality of the faith in Poland. True, the Church is still strong in Poland, but as Pieper suggest, this does not necessarily mean that the faith is strong. The Church in Poland is a cultural phenomenon. It is closely associated with Polish culture, that is Polishness, national identity, is highly linked to Catholicism. The Polish are quite proud of the fact that while the Church is in decline elsewhere it is still strong in Poland. This is clearly true--on the first Friday of Lent I attended a Lenten recollection, penance service, and Mass. I was astounded, it was a Friday morning at 9am, during winter break for Polish students, and the Church was packed with young people, mostly teenagers (13-19). The service lasted three hours, which I found out from my cousin afterwards was unexpected by most of the young people, but few if any of the young left the Church in frustration with the length of the service. This being said however, while all the young people new how to act in Church--I was touched by the profound silence at the Consecration--during most of the service, and Mass the young chatted quietly to themselves. And during the penance service many did not avail themselves of the sacrament, and latter chose not to receive communion. It seems to me that many Poles assent to the Faith, because culturally, politically, and socially they agree with what the Church is in secular terms; however I worry that too few accept the faith by means of the virtue of faith and the act of faith. Do most poles understand the Church to be Christ's mystical body and the only sure way to eternal salvation? Nominally surely so, but in re I am not quite so sure. It seems to me that the Polish church (institutional) rests too securely on its lauds and cultural ties to Poland--as we in Western Europe see quite clearly, in the face of materialism and tolerance such cultural ties will not long support the faith. Polish priests and bishops have a unique opportunity at this moment, to re-evangelize the culture while the Church is still strong and people’s hearts are still open to it. Sadly I am not sure they realize the opportunity they have. Speaking with some seminarian friends they note that many people think of the Church as a laudable institution, much like the fire department, however laudable institutions are not the foundations of community life, they are note schools of love, and hope, and faith. Rather they are just tools, which like the postal service can be displaced by new technologies and institutions. Polish people often do not come to priests with problems and polish parishes are often only cultic sites and not centers of community life--if this is the case, as many of my experiences in Poland suggest, the without the clear enemy the Poles had in Communism, the usefulness of the institutional Church one day in the future may be judged to be at an end. However, while the Church may not always be politically useful--it is always and everywhere the ordinary means of salvation, offered by Christ, to the whole world now and until the end of the world. And more than this triumphalistic view, it is a community of love where humans can maximize their human potential for love--and thus become truely happy. Unless the Church is promoted in this light, I fear for its future.