Polish Archbishop Reaffirms Christ As King of Poland

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KRAKÓW, Poland (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Poles renewed their acceptance of Jesus Christ as King and Lord of Poland on the Feast of Christ the King at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow.

The day represented the third anniversary of the proclamation of Jesus Christ as King of Poland.

During the ceremony, Abp. Józef Michalik, former president of the Polish Bishops' Conference, reminded those in attendance that "if Poland loses its Christian roots, it will wither and disappear."

The archbishop reminded his listeners of "another world" and "another King and Lord Who reigns in the kingdom of truth, justice and love," Who is "apart from the rulers of the world in which we live now."

The Polish prelate emphasized that a Christian culture requires "concrete deeds," including marital fidelity, premarital purity, love for others and daily prayer.

He added, "You cannot think of true believers if they do not attend Sunday Mass."

According to him, a deep spiritual Christian culture is based on strong, solid foundations and does not allow itself to be manipulated, adding, "It is incompatible with any ideology, including Nazism, Marxism and libertinism."

"The Church's task is to proclaim Christ and sanctify people, to lead people to salvation," he said. "The Gospel is not a few dozen pages of printed paper" nor a "finite" or "exhausted" thing, but "is growing in us."

"It will be [with us] all days until the end of the world as a living whole," he explained.

Secularization deprives us of a strong life foundation, he said. It represents "a departure from faith in God and a deprivation of transcendence ... as a justification for a good life." It "separates conscience from everyday life."

He alerted listeners to the "organized attack" being "directed at the Church and Catholic faith in Europe and Poland." He also pointed to "entire structures of evil," both monied foreign and Polish structures," attempting to carry out "a comprehensive cultural, sexual and educational revolution."

He said the scores of attacks on sacred symbols, the Church, bishops, and priests are targeted only because they are faithful to the teaching of the Church and do not agree with profaning the sacred.

"Poland is not sleeping!" he declared. "The Church in Poland is holding pastoral care of Christ!"

He added:

The kingdom of Christ does not please Satan. He is trying to bring his kingdom of lies, hatred, promiscuity and sin. We will not fight him by his methods or our forces. We will win him by the power of the Cross of Christ, by the power of faith, strengthened by fasting, alms, suffering and prayer. In difficult times, it is not right to stand idly by.

Bp. Mirosław Milewski on LGBT, Abortion and Blasphemy

Archbishop Michalik's themes were corroborated by Bp. Mirosław Milewski of the Płock diocese, whose remarks were published in Polonia Christiana on Sunday.

The bishop emphasized that "every follower of Christ cannot remain silent when ungodly people promote LGBT ideology, abortion and blaspheme God."

Like Abp. Michalik, the hierarch stressed that modern times demand testimony of Christian life:

When we observe the increase in the brutalization of life, when the ungodly announce the demands of legalization of abortion and euthanasia, promote LGBT ideology, blaspheme against God, mocking values ​​that are important to us, we cannot remain silent, we cannot pretend that it does not concern us, we cannot sit politely in the corner or agree to turn the world upside down, to reverse the proportions, to convince the public that abnormality is the norm, corruption is morality, and ugly beauty, that there is no objective truth, that everything has two or even more sides.

He emphasized that there would be no Poles or Poland without recognizing Jesus as King and Lord.

He recalled how St. Pope John Paul II merged Christ's kingship with Poland's destiny — and suffering: "It is impossible to understand our homeland without Christ, the pope said. It is impossible to understand this city, Warsaw, the capital of Poland, if you do not remember that Christ the Savior with his cross in front of the church in Krakowskie Przedmieście [a main street in Warsaw] lay under the rubble [of WWII]."

The bishop of Płock pointed out that, thanks to the spiritual and moral strength of the laity, Poland is still free from "liberal innovations" whose goal is the "spiritual and moral decay" of Polish society.

He appealed to Poles to value their religion as not just "an outer garment under which we hide problems."

"Contrary to the changing customs and processes of the world, be faithful to the One King of the Universe," he said, underscoring that "Christ is the only and reliable hope."

He noted that the transformation of the world begins with personal conversion. "It's not about the exchange of people, but about the renewal of man," he insisted.

At the Mass at which Christ was officially proclaimed King of Poland at the Shrine of Mercy in Kraków three years ago, the Poles prayed:

Christ, reign over us! Reign over our fatherland, and reign in every nation — for the greater glory of the Most Holy Trinity and the salvation of humanity. Make our homeland and the entire world into your kingdom: a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.

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