There are bishops and bishops..

photo by Dorothée QUENNESSON of Pixabay

In January and February, Germany massively took to the streets in almost all major cities to protest against the far-right alternate organization for Germany (AfD). I carefully follow the results of these protests, especially if they have succeeded in delegalising AfD

In February, the national Administrative Court in Münster was to examine the AfD's complaint on the decisions of the Constitutional Protection Offices (BfV) – these are their ABWs – in 3 east states: Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, which considered the AfD's structures to be right-extremist organizations. The court was postponed due to the fact that AfD filed quite a few extra papers in court.

Pending the judgement of this court, there are lively discussions in the country about the consequences of protests and chances of illegalisation of AfD. Amongst the mass of texts and speeches, I found something that amazed me and impressed me. On the website of the German Episcopal Conference, dated 22 February 2024, a four-page message by German bishops "Ethnic nationalism and Christianity are unacceptable". The full text is worth reading carefully; I will quote only 2 passages:

The Germans are having a hot time. The moods are stormy and the society polarized. A increasing proportion of society attracts right-wing extremist or right-wing populist movements. In the right-wing extremist environment, the fashionable slogan "reemigration" is utilized to push people from migratory environments out of the country. We bishops clearly support the fact that there is simply a voice of a surviving and strong protest movement on German streets. Anyone who, in a democratic, free and humanitarian spirit, expresses his opposition to the machinations of right-wing extremists deserves all our support and respect. It is good that many Christians are so committed to human dignity, human rights and democracy!

... We talk with all clarity: cultural nationalism is incompatible with the Christian image of God and man. Right-right-extremist parties and others circulating on the outskirts of this ideology cannot be a place where Christians could engage in political activity and cannot be voted for either. Dissemination of right-extremist slogans – especially racism and anti-Semitism – is incompatible with the main and volunteer service in the Church.

Well, let's see now what Polish bishops say to their faithful and to bishops I will only limit myself, though the Toruń monk and Jasna Góra monks say and do even more terrible things.

Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, president of the Polish Episcopal Conference in “Word Before Parliamentary Elections”, announced 1 October 2019:

Catholics should support programs defending the right to life from conception to natural death, guaranteeing a legal definition of matrimony as a permanent union of 1 man and 1 woman, promoting household policy, supporting childhood, guaranteeing the right of parents to rise their own offspring in accordance with their religion and moral convictions. Therefore, Catholics cannot support programs that advance abortion, effort to redefine the institution of marriage, effort to limit parents' rights to be liable for raising their children, advance the demoralisation of children and young people. They cannot decide on the choice of a candidate who expresses moral and political concerns. Almost word for word these recommendations are repeated in “Catholic Election Vademecum” of 21.09.23

The outgoing deputy president of the Polish Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski: The red plague on our land, fortunately, does not walk. That doesn't mean there's no fresh 1 who wants to master our souls, hearts and minds. Not Marxist and Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit – neo-Marxist. Not red, but rainbow.

Bishop Wiesław Mering at the Diocese Museum in Włocławek to the current president of PiS:

I would very much like you to feel here, Mr. Prime Minister, between us, a man not only accepted but admired. We are grateful for everything you do and did for Poland – together with your brother Prof. Lech Kaczyński. Your success is our success.

Bishop of Elbląski, Józef Wysocki, to Prime Minister Beata Szydło: Madam Prime Minister, I would like to say... how much we all love you. And to thank you, the full government, and everyone who takes on this large task of repair. We have received the President, this is simply a gift from the Lord God. We've received you as a large gift, we've received everything that's happening, and we'll do everything we can to avoid wasting it.

The bishops were obediently followed by politicians of the United Right. Jarosław Kaczyński: The LGBT and sex movement endanger our identity, endanger our nation, endanger the Polish state.

It is very hard to find differences between what AfD and PiS do and what leaders and officers of both parties say. But how different, highly different are the words of German and Polish bishops. Do Polish Catholics gotta perceive and obey the words of their bishops; with specified words? Do they gotta vote the way bishops order them?

In October 2017, the first gay couple married in Berlin on the basis of fresh regulations adopted in June that year by the Bundestag. German parliamentarians have legally aligned gay and lesbian relationships with heterosexual marriages. At the time Angela Merkel, head of the Chadetic CDU party, ruled Germany. possibly it is time for a decent, democratic, law-abiding Chadeck organization to be established in Poland too? Then there will be no dilemma as to what to do with the conservative spiritual voters of the PiS; they would have nowhere to go if we followed the Germans and attempted to delegate the PiS, the ideological duplicate AfD.