London Tuesday 23rd May 2023
Unpublished Letter to "The Guardian"
Dear Editor,
In relation to your article "Did the Pope know?" I am one of those many UK Poles who loved Pope John Paul II for his vital and subtle role in the liberation of his country and for guiding the Polish state in the first decade after it had recovered its sovereignty. I have often quoted his maxim about the need to keep patriotism and love of one's country separate from nationalism which he always condemned, and I admired his bold steps into healing relations between Judaism and the Catholic Church worldwide. He had immense charisma and was truly a highly respected international figure.
It does not mean that he was perfect. He was a figure of his time with conservative views on marriage and abortion and with the same traditional centuries old reaction to evidence of paedophilia among his priests. He certainly felt the need to defend the good name of the Polish Catholic Church against the perfidious attacks on this institution by a totalitarian Communist state. Also I would be very careful about utilizing any information based on the doctored files of a corrupt and mendacious organization like the Polish secret police.
I think that the current nationalist government in Poland is doing a disservice to the memory of this Pope by making any criticism of him an electoral issue. It serves simply to stifle an open and fair debate about Poland's past and gives the false impression by the monopolized Polish state media that the opposition parties are in some way responsible for running a campaign to blacken his character.
Yours faithfully
Wiktor MoszczynskiReplyForward |
No comments:
Post a Comment