From The Guardian: Poland’s faith divide: Ignited by the Smolensk crash, bitter tensions have emerged between Poland’s Catholics and liberal secularists

When 96 Polish dignitaries, including President Lech Kaczyński, were killed in a plane crash near Smolensk in April, the world briefly turned its gaze to Poland and its often tragic history. The victims were travelling to a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre – the murder of some 20,000 Poles by the Soviet secret police in 1940. The two tragedies became fused in the public imagination, reviving old anti-Russian prejudices and seeing the memorials to Katyn across Poland become the focus of fresh mourning. But the events that followed, and their consequences for Poland’s religious culture, have been little-covered in western Europe. The last six months have seen a bitter controversy emerge, raising serious questions about the place of religion in Polish public life.

Despite its image as one of the most homogeneously Catholic countries in Europe, Poland’s early history was one of religious diversity, with large Jewish and Orthodox populations, and the later founding of the Uniate church, making for a variety of traditions. The Warsaw Confederation of 1573 formalised a religious tolerance that had long been in existence and which had seen the country become a refuge for Protestants. The violence and extremism of the Reformation was hardly seen in Poland, and the country gained a reputation as an intellectual powerhouse in eastern Europe. With the arrival of the Jesuits in the late 16th century, however, the country experienced increasing Catholic dominance. The 1724 Tumult of Toruń, when Protestants ransacked a Jesuit collegium and were horribly executed for defiling Catholic images, marked a waning of religious tolerance. Finally, when Poland was carved up by competing empires in the late 18th century, Catholicism became a surrogate for nationalism in a fragmented country. It is the legacy of this that the country still deals with today.

The “cross controversy” that followed the Smolensk crash and dominated Polish headlines this summer was evidence of the intimate intertwining of Polish national identity and Catholic devotion. Threats to remove the large cross set up in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw as a memorial to the pro-church Kaczyński brought out conservative Catholic protestors in force. Styling themselves as “cross-defenders” and “true Poles”, they staged a round-the-clock vigil at a makeshift shrine. For a full month they could be found there kneeling in prayer, or blasting patriotic songs from a tinny stereo, holding their hands aloft in the victory sign that came to symbolise the Solidarność-led freedom movement in communist-era Poland.

The shrine provided a snapshot of the essence of contemporary Polish Catholic culture. Images of Pope John Paul II, Saint Faustina’s Christ of the Divine Mercy, Father Jerzy Popiełuszko and Our Lady of Czestochowa appeared alongside photos of Kaczyński, indicating his rapid transformation into a quasi-religious hero of the Catholic right. Popiełuszko, a political dissident murdered by the communist regime, and the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, mutilated by a Hussite heretic and later the miraculous defeater of invading Swedes, both carry strong messages about heroic Polish resistance to foreign foes and the threats posed to Catholics by unbelievers. Like in the equating of Katyn and Smolensk, historical specificity is erased to make universal symbols of Polish suffering, and at this shrine Catholicism was articulated as the essence of Poland’s history and nationhood.

But the cross controversy’s reaffirmation of conservative Catholic identity was met by an opposing force. Objecting to this overtly religious symbol at the seat of government, secularists and atheists were galvanised into action, staging a rally to call for the removal of the cross. Organised via the Akcja Krzyz (Cross Action) group on Facebook, this protest was dominated by a younger generation who were looking back to Poland’s history of liberalism and the prizing of enlightenment values. With the founding of the Polish Association of Rationalists in 2005, as well as the staging of an atheist “coming out” march in Kraków in October 2009 (repeated to great success just two weeks ago), another strand of Polish identity is emerging.

In mid-September, the Smolensk cross was finally removed. The shrine was cleared away, but the passions that built it are far from diffused and other controversies threaten to reawaken the conflict between conservative Catholics and secularist liberals. The atheist movement continues to grow, and there are also signs of greater religious diversity in the country, with an Islamic cultural centre planned for Warsaw, and more mosques being built across Poland. But hardline Catholic views also remain strong … Meanwhile, in a bold statement of Poland’s Catholic identity, the town of Świebodzin in the west of the country is building the biggest statue of Jesus in the world…

This article covers a lot of territory and hits the highlights of Polish religious and ethnic diversity very well. What Poland had been, for most of its history, was a welcoming and diverse country where the right to freedom of thought and conscience were protected. Much of that changed with the 18th century divisions of Poland. Poles were faced with rabid anti-Polish policies enacted in the German and Russian controlled sections of Poland (nationalism as well as religious and linguistic unity were the protective backlash), policies that pitted one ethnic group against the next in the Austrio-Hungarian controlled territories (which shored up the Empire’s control since the natives were too busy fighting each other to fight against the Empire), the murder of 6 million Catholic and Jewish Poles by Nazi Germany, and the subsequent shifting of borders leading to a more homogenous state. The result of the last 196 years is exactly the national mythos that exists today. Those who understand the longer and wider 1,044 year history of Poland know that it citizens achieve the greatest in human endeavor from diversity.

On the giant Jesus… what upsets me is not the fact of the statue, but the motivations behind it. The great buildings, cathedrals, monuments and such were always constructed to the glory of God and the memory of others. Not so much in this case! Underpaid and cheated workers building a statute to attract tourist money on a shaky foundation; not exactly a tribute to our God and King. Local newspaper editor Waldemar Roszczuk gets it right: “It’s a monster of a statue which has nothing to do with Christian teaching.” Amen!