Polish protest group hits out at condemnation by priest
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
22.03.2016 08:55
The leader of NGO the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD) has appealed to the Polish Episcopate to distance itself from a priest's claim that protesters should not be allowed to take holy communion.
Father Stanisław Małkowski. Photo: wikimedia commons/PRS team.net
The claims, made by Father Stanisław Małkowski in Catholic weekly Fronda, come at a delicate time, with Holy Week getting underway.
Małkowski stated that “belonging to KOD cannot be reconciled with the practice of the Catholic faith and with taking holy communion” as the committee “is associated with the current opposition, and the previous authorities.”
Repeating a slogan that has been regularly used by Poland's far-right, the priest said that the previous government had been “building a kind of Russian-German-Israeli condominium on the ruins of Poland.”
In response, leader of KOD Mateusz Kijowski wrote in a letter Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, head of the Polish Episcopate, that “many Catholics take part in the activities of KOD, because they are concerned about the state of democracy, and the lack of respect for the law and their fellow citizens.”
He added that “we still lack a clear voice from the Cardinal in defence of the most important Christian values - love of one's neighbour, truth and striving for the common good.”
The Committee for the Defence of Democracy was founded shortly after the Law and Justice party won the 25 October general election, and it has led a series of marches in cities across Poland.
Father Stanisław Małkowski was a prominent priest within the Solidarity movement. However, in 2014, the Episcopate said that it did not condone his actions after he carried out an exorcism outside the Presidential Palace. (nh/pk)
Source: PAP