“Today John Paul II, tomorrow Faustyna Kowalska, the day after tomorrow Fr. Popiełuszko. What we will have? Only renewed proposals to change the St. John Paul II Square and return to the previous name of May 1st square or perhaps also the anniversary of the October Revolution, or maybe we will reach again for the ideals of Felix Dzierżyński? This is the question” – Fr. Prof. Skrzypczak commented in the portal wPolityce.pl
wPolityce.pl: We are dealing with a real “witch-hunting” on St. John Paul II. In what categories should we treat the ongoing attacks on the Polish Pope?
Fr. Prof. Robert Skrzypczak: After all this is obvious. What you call a ‘witch-hunting’ or otherwise an attempt to eliminate the form of sacred authority for Poles, the authority of St. John Paul II that he has on a global, world scale, is connected with the next phase or the next shock wave of the transgender revolution in Poland. It is known that John Paul II, as well as the Catholic Church in Poland, are the main brakes on moral and moral changes that intend to introduce left-wing environments inspired by neo-Marxism, Gramscim, the Frankfurt school. As a result, they could not take advantage of a better opportunity which was the report on Cardinal McCarrick. Of course, they did it blindly and without any connection to reality. What appeared in the Polish media from November 10th that is, from the date of publication of the report, came out of the mouths of either representative of the extreme left or from the apostates’ environment. All this was aimed at destroying, or at least hurting the authority of Pope John Paul II in the public imagination.
Let me just remind you that the Catholic Church, with its teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, about the fact that marriage is a man and a woman, with a privileged family status as a place where life is accepted and where life is raised, and therefore a place of personal, undeniable, indisputable dignity of human life from conception to natural death, is a dam for transgender change in the world. And, the position of the Catholic Church precisely thanks to the pontificate of John Paul II, thanks to his theology of the body, vision of man and the acquisition of the younger generation through his extraordinary charism (World Youth Day) constitute a bastion. You have to hit this bastion, try to destroy it. Of course, these are ‘bullets’ which are blindly shot, because if someone is at least a little intelligent and at least a little inquisitive when it comes to facts, and does not want to get carried away by the wave of propaganda, only sticks to reality and will look at the Vatican’s report on McCarrick’s, then he/she will find that the facts were not what we were supposed to learn from the mouth of Leszek Miller, Sławomir Sierakowski or ex-priest and apostate – Mr. Obirek. They are completely different. The report about Mr. McCarrick presents the Pope John Paul II in a completely different light. Please take into account, this is 1999 and 2000, that is, John Paul II is 80 years old, he is already affected by the disease, and yet he tells to study the case of Cardinal McCarrick carefully. He instructs the Congregation for the Bishops to verify all the rumors, asks to gather the opinions of other bishops from the environment in which McCarrick operates and lives and on the basis of this decides to withhold the candidacy of McCarrick to the capital in Washington. It is only that the personal letter of the then Archbishop McCarrick which convinces John Paul II. In the letter McCarrick swears that it is only an attempt to discredit him because of his diplomatic activities and related to the papal finances he dealt with. On the other hand, the Pope also receives many opinions from bishops regarding McCarrick which portraits him as a man who is very open to people, very loving the Church, whose pastoral qualities many appreciate. The report shows us the Pope as a very prudent man who consults and listens to opinions before making a decision. It was only in 2017 that the facts emerged showing that this decision was wrong despite all this – 12 years after the death of John Paul II and 8 years of attempts by Benedict XVI to clarify the matter. People did not have this perspective and knowledge in 1999 or 2000.
Thus, to conclude that John Paul II was responsible for covering up pedophilia in the Church, that he himself was complicit in it, is not only an abuse, journalistic indifference – if someone reproduces such messages – but it is a testimony that an attempt has been made to overthrow the most important bastion, which does not make Poland an easy prey for the transgender revolution.
There is an incredible perfidy in all these attacks, given that St. John Paul II was a Pope very closely associated with youth. He had an amazing contact with young people; very often it was to them that he addressed his word. Hitting him in a situation where today we are seeing an increase in the fight for youth is not accidental…
Of course. We live in a time of demolition of authorities, especially among young people. Today, young people do not like authorities and move away from them. It is also sprinkled with left-wing, revolutionary ideology, dictating that all authorities must be disregarded, they must be shown contempt, starting with the authority of the father, mother, through the authority of the teacher, professor, priest, saints – it is necessary to turn away from it in the fight against paternalism. Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian expert on globalization and how the media operates in globalization, has already emphasized this very strongly. He pointed out that at this moment, when there is a temptation or desire to destroy all authority, to “liberate” people from authority, so that they have no reference points, because then they will be easier to manage them by easy left-wing slogans, rebellion. At that time – McLuhan said – there sooner or later will appear so-called anonymous authorities, that is, those authorities that are created by the media: the authority of public opinion, the authority of the invisible hand that controls, prompts how to think, how to judge facts. The example of the attack on St. John Paul II on the occasion of the McCarrick’s report is the best proof of this. Just look at the first opinions which appeared in the Polish press space. Please note that the opinions of those who do not belong to the Church, who have said goodbye to the Church through an act of apostasy, or who were once even trained in the fight against the Church, presented their opinion.
There is a clear, blatant attempt to discredit, to convey contempt for St. John Paul II, his moral and spiritual authority.
In all these attacks – and this is becoming clearer and clearer – it is not at all about caring for the victims of pedophilia, but it is brutally using them to overturn the memory of a person whose legacy has helped many rise from the most difficult situations in their lives.
This is not new. This is not something that caused me to run out of breath when I encountered these sometimes unfair, dishonest and sometimes even nasty statements from some politicians or columnists in Poland in relation to John Paul II. That didn’t surprise me. Attempts to discredit John Paul II not only in Poland, but also in the world and mainly in left-liberal environments and environments which are very positive about the galloping changes of morality which convey that we should go with the times happens a lot. Especially, I noted them from the moment of the John Paul II’s canonization. that is, the exaltation of the authority of John Paul II to the point that the Catholic Church has confirmed this, which was at the time of John Paul II’s death; a common belief and which spontaneously came out of people: “Santo subito!”. We enjoyed it. We recognized that we have a saint. It is not difficult to reach for similar analogies – St. Francis and St. Anthony. Their canonizations also proceeded very quickly and were in absolute harmony with the feeling of the majority.
Some groups must not like it. They were not happy. Starting from groups that had already tried to eliminate John Paul II, also by using weapons and bullets, to groups for which John Paul II was above all an uncomfortable, hated teacher and authority of the younger generation. It was necessary to ensure that, above all, the younger generation was distracted from the Christian message, a very attractive vision of Christian life, love, family, marriage. This is why the rapid process of what we call dewojtyłization, or disgust of Karol Wojtyła’s character or even attempts to de-canonize John Paul II, began. Let me remind you a few facts. Two years ago, a petition was published in the French Le Monde by two French women theologians representing progressive, left-wing communities in the Catholic Church, who even demanded the de-canonization of John Paul II for an overly restrictive approach to sexual and marital ethics. The same was then repeated by Professor Sciascia who worked at the Vatican – he was considering the possibility of de-canonizing John Paul II from the legal side. Then, earlier this year, even before the pandemic, a letter was issued by a group of bishops in northern Italy who apologized to their dioceses for too strict and unsuited to the mentality and possibilities of modern people John Paul II’s teaching on issues of sexuality and love. In many places there has been an attempt to silence the theology of the body, that is, a brilliant, very convincing vision of human love, openness to life, generosity of the transmission of life. The wave of the so-called women’s strike, previously also a transgender rebellion on Polish streets, was combined with attempts to conquer or gain another symbolic foothold in the form of wrapping in rainbow flags monuments – from Christ, through Copernicus, to the cross on Giewont. At this moment, this is another weapon in the war for the souls of the younger generation, an attempt to persuade the younger generation to apostasy.
I would be happy to urge those who observe events in Poland and seem willing to support what the leaders of the women’s strike or other feminist circles demand, which is joined by far-left neo-Marxist parties in Poland, to pay close attention to what has happened in Western Europe since 1968, through the 1970s: the sexual revolution, taking to the streets, barricades, attempts to desecrate holy sites and churches. This turned into a new movement in the 1970s also demanding radical changes in morality, left-wing, supported by terrorist methodology and what this led to 50 years later. Today, we have in Europe a generation that is incapable of taking on any responsibility, a generation of feminized men, emancipated women, single people who are lost and who are covered in tattoos and drug feed. They become a generation of people who are starving- looking for love, for a true meaning, people who have emptiness in their hearts. Do we want to achieve in 50 years this standard in Poland succumbing to this blind left-liberal rebellion? Consider whether it is really in our interest today to break away from the Gospel, from the Decalogue, from supernaturalism, from staring into the sky, from the Catholic Church, which has always given asylum to Poles, a sense of security when it comes to defending and nurturing, above all, human freedom, human dignity. Can we allow to jerk and desecrate the Saints? Today John Paul II, tomorrow Faustyna Kowalska, the day after tomorrow Fr. Popiełuszko. What we will have? Only renewed proposals to change the St. John Paul II Square to the name of May 1st square or perhaps also the anniversary of the October Revolution, or maybe we will reach again for the ideals of Felix Dzierżyński? This is the question.
