Catholic News - Thursday, May 21, 2009 A.D.
Catholic News-Monday, November 24, 2008 A.D.
Catholic News-Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008 AD
Poland: The Last Bastion
Well, not quite the last bastion, after all, even in secular strongholds like France and Sweden there are still outposts of the ancient Catholic Culture. However, with the recent defection of Portugal to the culture of death and a continuing decline of faith in Ireland, increasingly Poland is the only nation that is able to defend the way, the truth, and the life, on an international level. Even in our globalized world, there is a lot of importance and power related to nation states, and thank God there is a nation like Poland, the "Helm's Deep" of Christendom, so to speak.
There are few certainties in this world, beyond "death and taxes," but another one you can add to that short-list, is that whenever civilization is at a moment of crisis, it is the good people of Poland, inspired and protected by Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Queen of Poland, who will come to the rescue. Consider...
-Poland was the resolute rock on which wave after wave of barbarian invasions from the east crashed and receded, most notably, in one 13th century battle, Poland sacrificed its entire army to keep the Mongols out of Europe.
-In 1683 when no other crowned head of Europe would come to the aide of the city of Vienna, the King of Poland and his famous "Winged Hussars," galloped the the rescue, descending on the Sultan's hordes and saving Central Europe from becoming another province of the Ottoman Empire.
-In the 1920s, with the rest of the free world not lifting a finger, the newly reborn Polish nation stood toe-to-toe with the Red Army and routed them in a miraculous battle at the gates of Warsaw, saving Europe from the grim prospect of Communist domination.
-Poland was the first nation to stand up to Hitler on the battlefield, and while their armies were broken and their cities destroyed, people fail to consider that the Poles were simultaneously battling Nazi Germany and the USSR. Even in the face of such disaster, Poland did not surrender, and, in fact, had the most effect resistance movement in all of occupied Europe.
-Inspired by John Paul II, the people of Poland peacefully resisted their communist government, setting into motion a chain of events that ended the Cold War without mushroom clouds.
A sad footnote to all those examples of Poland rising to the occasion is the fact that in their wake, Poland was sold-out. Most shamefully, in the allies allowing Soviet control of the nation in 1945. In retrospect, and in the eyes of history, all of Poland's lonely stands were later vindicated as heroic, crucial battles of good vs. evil. Anyway, the most recent incarnations of such battles are now being fought, the narrative is familiar, again, Catholic Poland stands tall, and almost alone, against tyranny, not the tyranny of the Mongols, the Turks, or Stalin, this time, but rather, the Dictatorship of Moral Relativism.
H/T to Dad29 for bringing this to my attention. Maybe someone can make a nifty "we support Poland," sidebar graphic for bloggers? Just a thought. Anyhow, bellow is, in full, a very fine article about what Catholics in Poland are doing to fend off the secular, post-Christian culture of death. It stirs the heart. (Emphasis added.)
'Repulsive' Poland confronts Europe' They are inspiring people around the world with their stance'
By Art Moore© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
WARSAW – Nearly 70 years after the invasion of Poland marked the beginning of a global cataclysm, the Central European nation once again finds itself confronting a foe it sees as a threat to Western civilization.
While the rest of Europe largely accommodates a rising tide of secularism, many Polish leaders are prepared to fight back with a bold, traditional social agenda they envision not only for their own country but for the continent and the world.
Poland's vice premier and minister of education, Roman Giertych told the World Congress of Families here his multi-pronged plan – including a proposal issued last month to ban "homosexual propaganda" in schools – is "something I have to do."
"The family is the hope for Poland, the hope for Europe, the hope for the entire world," the 36-year-old leader told the global gathering of more than 3,200 from 75 nations. "... Without the family, there is no nation, there is no continent, there is no civilization, there is nothing."
As WND reported, the fourth World Congress convened this weekend to address Europe's 
"demographic winter" of plunging birthrates by promoting the "natural family" as the "springtime of Europe and the world."
In April, members of the European Parliament quickly denounced Giertych's "homosexual propaganda" proposal as "repulsive" and "hateful" and passed a resolution of condemnation 325-124, with 150 abstentions.
It's no wonder then that Polish pro-life activist Eva Kowalewska told the World Congress delegates, "Your presence here gives us strength."
Janina Fetlinksa, a member of the Polish Senate and the Council of Europe, told WND in an interview the European Union doesn't really understand Poland.
"When I hear we are intolerant, homophobic and so forth, I think, my God," she said, pointing to her peoples' long history of living among many nationalities. "The majority of Poles love life, they love family. I think the misunderstanding from this is that we are intolerant moralists. It is not true."
While many Poles don't practice the country's traditional Catholic faith, it's still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, Fetlinska said.
Our pope, John Paul II, moved our spirits toward God," she explained. "I think this is the reason the value of life is very important to us. It's in our politics, too, because politics are from people."
'The truth is on our side' 
Giertych, whose father and grandfather were prominent Polish politicians, says Poland is threatened by "various ideologies … that have nothing to do with the well-being of children, that promote attitudes which are not true to life."
"This world of permissiveness, of certain attitudes which promote homosexuality, which promote pornography, this world is coming to an end, because our civilization is built on virtues, on Roman law … on the Decalogue," said Giertych, according to an English interpretation. "This civilization has great strength for rebirth. The rebirth will take place in the family, not only in Europe, but in the entire world."
Giertych's appointments to his posts in May 2006 were met one day later with a protest in front of the Ministry of Education by about 100 activists. Just a couple of weeks later, more than 140,000 people signed a petition to remove him from office.
At the Congress, Giertych offered encouragement to fellow Poles and to foreigners attacked for their views.
"Please don't let people shut you down," he said. "Please don't be convinced that others who are promoting lies are telling the truth. The truth is on our side."
Giertych said the world needs a breakthrough like the one that took place at the beginning of the 13th century in England with the signing of the Magna Carta. In March, at a meeting of ministers of education in Heidelberg, Germany, he proposed a "Great Charter of Rights of European Nations."
The world will never be free from dangers threatening the family, he said, if there are no rights in place protecting life from the very beginning until natural death.
"Today we need a great charter for the rights of the family and nations that defines the right to life, that would define abortion as murder," Giertych told the World Congress delegates. "Whether three months old or three months before birth, whether 60 or 90 years old, murder is always murder. It is always a crime."
One of the fundamental truths that should be in that charter, he said, is that families are led by a man and a woman.
"Let's never accept mommy and mommy or daddy and daddy," he said. "There is only one truth."
Giertych said the consequences of "alternative" family structures must be frankly communicated, and several World Congress presenters did just that, including Patrick Fagan of the Heritage Foundation, who presented research data in numerous categories showing "the safest place for children is in the natural family."
Another proposal, Giertych said is to restructure a tax and pension system that essentially takes from those who have many children and gives to those who have none.
"This is contrary to equality of law," Giertych said. "A fair system allows the family to regain some of the money they spend on their children, because they are investing in the next generation. This is not symbolic but realistic, lowering the cost of upbringing children." A further initiative is to prohibit circulation of pornography.
"Pornography is evil; it is an evil that touches the family and threatens the development of young people," the deputy prime minister said. "Its circulation should be treated as a crime, because it ruins what is most virtuous in a human being."
Dangerous proposal
To many European activists such as Robert Biedron, president of the Polish homosexual-rights group Campaign Against Homophobia, such proposals make Poland a pariah. The ban on "homosexual propaganda" is a "dangerous" measure that made him feel "embarrassed" when he heard about it.
"Poland is like an island drifting away from the rest of Europe," Biedron said at the time.
Tomasz Bilicki, who battles the spread of pornography as deputy director of the Center of Family Service in Lodz, Poland, told WND through an interpreter his nation does, indeed, often feel alone.
"It's very often, on the international field, Poland has only one country it can cooperate with – the Vatican," he said. "Sometimes it's Ireland or Spain, but only sometimes. "We are alone, we are the last bastion."
Bilicki gave a presentation in a panel session on pornography that included American scholar Robert Knight of the Media Research Center in Alexandria, Va.
Knight affirmed in an interview with WND that Poland is "nearly alone" as the European Union promotes abortion, homosexuality and pornography "as hard as it can as part of an overall deconstruction of the family."
"You can't blame them for feeling as if they're the lone soldier on the battlefield," he said. "They are inspiring people around the world with their stance."
Knight said Poland's stand against the European Union has been a topic among defenders of the family across the U.S.
"We have taken our courage in what the Poles are doing," he said. "This is a nation that has suffered enormously over many decades. First from Nazism and then communism. They're a tough bunch of people who appear to have the strength to resist especially the homosexual agenda.
"If you've been victim of communists and Nazis, you're not going to run in fright from the forces from San Francisco."
Knight said it was wise for Poland to host the World Congress, because "they know you need allies."
"Even the bravest soldier can't stand alone forever. And they don't need to," he said. "I think the lesson for Americans is that we need more soldiers out on the battlefield."
Knight said observing Poland reminds him of a principle he learned from watching former Republican Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina "stand up and be attacked by the left."
"His courage gave others the excuse to move toward his position even if they didn't vocalize it publicly," Knight said. "We need that kind of leadership. … It's far easier to isolate someone and make them out to be a crank or far-right if nobody else is talking the way they are."
Poland, he said, isn't "waiting to see what others are doing, they are taking leadership."
"Others will come to them because they are the rallying point," said Knight. "So our hats have to go off to the Poles."
Wesley Smith, a bioethics expert and senior fellow with Seattle's Discovery Institute, told WND after contributing to an international panel on euthanasia that he, too, has been impressed by the Poles.
"It strikes me that they are willing to stand against the cultural tide, and that takes courage," Smith said. "And if that continues, eventually the tide sometimes can be shifted."
The Polish Senate's Fetlinksa concurred.
"We are idealists," she said, "but only idealists can change the world. END"
Bellow are some excerpts from the EU's condemnation of Poland, for the entire sorry document go here.
"...whereas in its above-mentioned resolution of 15 June 2006, Parliament has already expressed its serious concern at the situation in Europe and notably in Poland, condemning the declarations of incitement to hatred and violence by the leaders of the Party of the League of Polish Families and, notably, by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education,
H. whereas in March 2007 the Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education announced draft legislation punishing "homosexual propaganda" in schools, and illustrated its content, which is to provide for dismissing, fining or imprisoning school heads, teachers and pupils in the event of LGBT rights "activism" in schools..."
For more on Poland's fight with the EU from Catholic blogger feminine-Genius go here.
For Fumare's take and some good links go here.
For an example of Poland doing its part to spread its values, check out this inspiring little story about Polish soldiers inviting their NATO allies to join them on a pilgrimage, read the excerpt bellow and the entire story here. It was US Army on this pilgrimage but I'll bet this would have been right up the Caveman's ally had the opportunity presented itself back in his day.
Catholic News-Wednesday, May 2, 2007 A.D.
Catholic Ireland Suicide Watch-Threatdown
This probably seems like a real minor story, but it is sad none-the-less, to see Catholicism in Ireland dying by a thousand little cuts. The worse part of it all is that the Irish were subjected to some of the most fiendish attempts to stomp out the faith, and stayed strong. I guess a few years of economic prosperity are accomplishing what Oliver Cromwell and his thugs never could. H/T CWN... No skipping school for altar boys, Irish officials say Dublin, Apr. 27, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Irish education officials have called for an end to school policies allowing altar boys to leave school in order to serve at Mass, the Irish Independent reports. Several schools were reportedly told that they should not allow students to miss classes in order to serve at funerals. The policy change was ordered, the Independent said, because students were missing classes, and were not under the direct supervision of school personnel while they were serving at Mass. Irish school officials said that the practice of allowing altar boys to leave school had once been commonplace, and is now disappearing. Liam Neeson, who is a great actor, though his relationship with Catholicism is on-and-off with the same reliability as a junior-high relationship, once recounted how the most peaceful moments of his life were as a young boy, ridding his bicycle in the freezing pre-dawn darkness to serve as an altar boy at the daily Masses at his little parish church. A beautiful sentiment. Too bad the school system is ensuring that this venerable tradition becomes a relic of the past. We all know that vocations are born at the foot of the altar so this may be another nail in the coffin for Irish Catholicism. This article does raise a few questions though. I was under the impression that most schools in Ireland were run by the Church, so is this really going to affect a lot of altar boys? Also, does this mean that they don't have girl altar servers in Ireland? I would be kind of shocked if they didn't, but at the same time, I guess I hold a glimmer of hope that they haven't adopted that practice. Now in contrast to my dour tone, I will say, there is always room for some hope. I have faith in the good people of Ireland. Mass attendance and birthrates in Ireland are still the highest in Western Europe, also pro-life laws have survived many attacks and statistics show the great bulk of people believe in protecting the unborn. I think this is a case of Dublin vs. the rural areas. Dublin is increasingly becoming a clone of any other western European city, but I hear reports that in the countryside the Catholic Culture is still in-tact. Anyway one may wonder, what is happening to Ireland? Why is the great bastion of Catholicism losing the faith? Well I have five reasons... 1-Elite Eurocrats: The folks who are embarrassed by the fact that their nation is lagging behind the rest of Western Europe in pace of secularism, abortion on demand, and gay-marriage. 2-The Church: Yep, sorry to say, but not for being "too authoritarian" in the orthodox sense, or whatever liberals will say. The Church dropped the ball with some major scandals, and then folded. You may recall a few years ago some Irish seminarians were kicked out of seminary for kneeling during communion! Way to pre-empt men who were much needed as priests. Right now the Irish church has the same issue that many dioceses in the US have, wishy-washy old bishops and clergy clashing with the more orthodox and zealous JP-II generation priests. The good news is the young guys will be able to wait them out. 3-Money: Sure it may be unfair to blame the Irish for losing so much of their faith as soon as some prosperity comes their way, as no nation seems immune to this, so I'm just saying. 4-Americans: Yep, a lot of Americans have screwed up. It's not just the fact that the ranks of Irish-Catholics in America are dominated by names like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and George Carlin, though that is a major problem. It is American tourists who basically turned holy St. Patrick's Day into a twisted version of it's real self. The St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Dublin are "Americanized" to the core. Also I just want to take a dig here at Irish-Americans who in the name of "rediscovering their heritage," developed some sort of neo-pagan, new age, concept of Irish culture, people who on their most Christian day love flaunting thier Celtic cross necklace, but would never pray the Rosary. 5-Socialists: I love the Irish Pub music, why is it that so many of these guys are socialists? I guess once again I am meaning Americans here. There are some great Irish bands, but there are way too many with some sort of Che T-Shirt spirit Socialism that is not really part of the Irish tradition. Maybe this portion of my complaints should have been filed under number 4. Anyway I think that maybe they are trying to be more "authentic," but these are usually the same bands that wear suspenders and old time newsy caps, thus telling me that all their concepts of Ireland are based on stereotypes and a few clips from Titanic. Yes, some of the big names of the 1916 rebellion were socialists, but maybe that's why they failed? Anyway this brings me to insert name of other radically anti-British groups and such that are Catholic in name only. Now believe me, I am the first person to bash on what the English did to Ireland. However many (by no means all) people marching against the English today give me the Al Sharpton v. Don Immus vibe. That is to say, these folks are perpetuating a movement, just so it still exists, though it has no real purpose or roots (as it may have had, had it stayed truly Catholic). Look, if there was some sort of real oppression of Irish Catholics on religious grounds, I would be backing these people to the bitter end, however, of what I've seen of such rallies, there is a strong anti-clerical bend and an eerie sort of secularism. Sorry Irish Socialist radical types who are the ultimate Catholics in name only. If I saw you people leading the charge in some kind of Catholic revival in Ireland the check would be in the mail tomorrow, if you are just essentially clinging to the Catholic identity so you can play the victim game you have lost my respect. Consider this gem from Sinn Féin the "Catholic" and "Nationalist," party of Ireland... IRA Party Sinn Fein Passes Pro-Abortion Motion "At its weekend conference, the Irish Republican Army associated Sinn Fein Party has passed a motion calling on a change to the Southern Constitution to permit "a woman's right to choose". Sinn Fein also gave support to the Irish Family Planning Association's campaign for free abortion both North and South of the Border." Hey guys, I understand your rage when rocks and insults get thrown at Catholic girls on the way to school, thank God we don't have those problems in America, and if we did I'd be more than willing to put myself between the rocks and the children... but take your faith up a notch and be just as adamant about defending your own unborn, and your culture in general. The less Catholic Ireland becomes, the more it looks to me like Wales or Scotland, areas which have some unique history of their own but when it's all said and done, put the U in U.K. Also, worth asking, who knows, maybe the whole "sectarian" conflict in Ireland would have been over-by now by virtue of demographics if so many people weren't flaunting Church teaching these past thirty years? I mean in the US Episcopalian leaders not to have children, and the Anglican church was the first to green-light contraception, they've had a demographic handicap for like 70 years! You were probably one generation away from making Irish Anglicans as much of a factor of influence as Sikhs in Idaho. Rest assured I will be keeping a close eye on events in Ireland and blogging on the state of the nation much more in the future.
Irish #1!... in Binge Drinking
We all are aware of the stereotype of the Irish liking to fight and drink. So what if the mascot of the world famous University of Notre Dame is called the Fighting Irish. So what if we playfully pick on our favorite American ethnic group about their drinking habits. It seems to me that they are the ones that are more vocal than any other about their drinking 'prowess'.
Well a recent Eurobarometer survey done in Europe (EU) interviewed EU nations to determine who are the heaviest drinkers. At it has been determined that the Irish are the worst offenders to binge drinking.
Ireland has the highest rates of binge-drinking in the European Union, a survey exploring attitudes to alcohol has indicated. ... Binge-drinking is a particular problem among young people, with almost a fifth of the 15-24 age group usually binge-drinking when consuming alcohol, according to the results of the survey on attitudes towards alcohol, presented by the European Commission on Thursday. ... The Catholic Church has added its voice to those warning of the dangers to society of alcohol abuse. ... In recent years there has been much concern about underage drinking on Irish streets on Saint Patrick's Day and some of the resulting problems, including violence, our correspondent says.Seriously, binge drinking is not anything to be proud of. I'm not singling out the Irish per se, just that we've taken our Catholic holidays to the extreme that some of these holy days have become more banal than holy. We probably need to retake these days and emphasise the spiritual aspects of them. Like John Paul II said, we need to transform the world. What better way than celebrating the true nature of these holidays!. For the BBC World News report on this story click here. For the liberals trying to change St. Patrick's Day to Shamrock Day posting click here. For Fidei Defensors epic posting to begin his CVSTOS FIDEI blogging entry on St. Patrick's Day click here.
