This decisive move by the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference is worthy of attention, understanding and even promotion. The quoted sentence, by the way, comes from the writings of Pope John Paul II (Message for the celebration of the XXX World Day of Peace, 1 January 1997), who was one of the signatories of the historic letter of the Polish bishops to the German bishops of 18 November 1965.

Forgiveness and justice

– Years later, we can say that that document proved prophetic. It began a process of reconciliation between Poles and Germans, without ignoring the crimes that had been committed, without forgetting the victims and without closing ourselves with a sense of the wrongs suffered – Archbishop Gądecki wrote. – Now, the issues raised in the government report – he declared – “should be seen in the context of the long-standing process of Polish-German reconciliation”, the beginning of which was the 1965 letter from the Polish bishops to the German bishops.

Archbishop Gądecki made the statement himself, in his own name, and in doing so made at least a few moves. First of all, he clearly expressed his support for the initiative, while at the same time dissociating himself from its implementation: “state institutions are called upon to decide on the practical forms of restoration of justice” – he wrote plainly, because “the task of the Church is to remind us of the value of conversion, forgiveness and reconciliation”. On both sides we have a desire “that the two reconciled peoples, Polish and German, look towards a better future”.     SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE  As President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Gądecki has no authority over bishops and parish priests, but he clearly reminded them with this statement of who has what tasks – in political life, mercy and forgiveness must be accompanied by prudence and justice.

This is what the editor of the German Catholic weekly “Die Tagespost” emphasised. “In the debate about the Polish government’s demands for war reparations from Berlin, the president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference subtly embarrassed the German bishops” – says Regina Einig. In her editorial she writes: “That there is no contradiction between forgiveness and justice is a deft formulation that no German bishop would deny”. That Archbishop Stanislaw Gądecki supports the government’s move to have “state institutions decide on the practical forms of restoring justice is not surprising”.

Secondly, through his statement, Archbishop Gądecki, in a way, pre-empted potential adversaries of the report, making it clear that in their ritual political struggle they have no reason to refer to the famous letter of the Polish bishops to the German bishops and brandish a supposedly long-overdue settlement: there was a question of forgiveness, the Poznań metropolitan reminds us, but justice was not done. “Forgiveness is by no means opposed to the search for truth, but even demands the truth. The wrong done must be recognised and, as far as possible, put right” – he writes after John Paul II.

Greater Poland memory

Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki was born in Strzelno (an eminently historical town due to its oldest Polish architectural relicts), and is entirely of Wielkopolska (“Greater Poland” – one of the land’s historical regions) origin, if I may say so, and has a Greater Poland identity and a historical awareness of it. During the war, Greater Poland was not an occupied Generalgouvernement, although I do not wish to haggle over the extent of the misery and injustice. It was, after all, a land from which, after the aggression of 1939, the German invaders had made a piece of their Third Reich, Reichsgau Wartheland or Warthegau for short – and regarded this land as “indigenously German”.

So Polish landowners and factory owners were expelled from their homes, children were Germanised, cultural property was plundered, the intelligentsia was murdered and churches were destroyed: in the Diocese of Poznań alone – and yet the Warthegau included such strong Polish areas as the Dioceses of Włocławek, Kalisz and Łódź – the Germans murdered 240 priests, or 32.4 per cent of their number from 1 September 1939. Of the 357 Catholic priests in the Diocese of Łódź, the Germans murdered 155, and the losses of the clergy in the neighbouring Diocese of Włocławek were also appalling.

“The German Generalplan Ost [Master Plan for the East] assumed that twenty years after the end of the war there would be no Polish state nor 80% of Poles” – Archbishop Gądecki recalled in a powerful sermon on the anniversary of the outbreak of the war, five years ago in Poznań. He said at the time that it was “an event of unheard-of consequences for Poland, Europe and the world; a real collapse of the civilisation of the time”.

Archbishop Gądecki was born just six years after the war, so he could still see and feel all its effects in the attitudes of his parents, relatives or educators. He was still a high school student when the famous letter from the Polish bishops to the German bishops was published. I don’t know how it was in his town, but in my town, in Słupsk, neither the catechist nor the decent teachers were in any way prepared to receive this letter, to talk about reconciliation and forgiveness – we talked about this with the archbishop more than once. Neither were they prepared to counter the terrible campaign that the communist authorities unleashed on that letter. So now, perhaps Archbishop Gądecki wanted to pre-empt, through his statement, the actions of those who would try to attack the report? And at the same time to give support – and arguments – to those who need them, including teachers and catechists.

In many families, after all, the memory of the war and its effects, including material ones, is still alive: the graves of loved ones are there – an example is the burial of 45 victims of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp last Sunday, with the participation of Dr Wanda Półtawska, now more than 100 years old, also a victim of medical pseudo-experiments to which female prisoners were subjected in that camp.

The memory of these places must be cherished, because our loved ones, who will never have graves, died there. Finally, there are the material possessions of wealthy Polish families, which were transported there en masse in vans and wagons: works of art and valuable old prints, fine furniture, tableware from manor houses and palaces, jewellery. The factories, libraries, palaces, schools, cattle farms and pedigree horses had been taken away from its prewar legal possesors. Not to mention the villages and towns destroyed – razed to the ground, as punishment, in retaliation – and specific buildings, including churches, many of which have not been rebuilt. Not to mention Warsaw, the collections of the National Library and the Saxon Palace destroyed deliberately, planned, precisely.

Emaciated German Catholicism

In this matter – we read in the statement of Archbishop Gądecki – I am with my country, I am a citizen of the Republic of Poland.

And this is how it was perceived by a German columnist from a Catholic weekly. As a clear signal to his German brothers in the priesthood, especially his brothers in the episcopate, with whom Archbishop Gądecki cooperates and often meets.

The author points out that Archbishop Gądecki’s statement comes at a time when relations between the German and Polish bishops have historically reached an all-time low due to incompatible views on Church reform in general and the synodal process in particular. “And in contrast to the 1960s, when the bishops of both countries came together in symbolically moving gestures and led the work of reconciliation, the scales have now tipped significantly in favour of the Polish brothers and sisters” – Einig emphasises.

She is probably referring to Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki’s famous letter to the President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Batzing, on the “synodal way”, in which – in March this year – the Metropolitan of Poznań wrote: “Faithful to the Church’s teaching, we should not succumb to the pressures of the world or give in to the models of the dominant culture, as this can lead to moral and spiritual corruption. Let us beware of repeating cliché slogans and standard demands such as the abolition of celibacy, the priesthood of women, communion for the divorced, those living in new relationships, or the blessing of same-sex unions. An »update« of the definition of marriage in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is no reason to tamper with the Gospel.”

The publicist of “Die Tagespost” thus comments that “emaciated German Catholicism would be much poorer without the enthusiasm of Polish Catholics. The German bishops, who care about a stronger Church presence in the world, must now respond to Archbishop Gądecki’s statement and show that the Church has a voice in social debates. At the autumn plenary meeting in Fulda, the bishops will now have a tough nut to crack” – concludes the editor of “Die Tagespost” in her commentary.

As can already be seen from the comments about the report, it is not only the German bishops who have this conondrum.

– Barbara Sułek-Kowalska

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and journalists

– Translated by jz