Poland Sees Surge in Anti-Catholic Sentiment – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

For centuries, Poland was one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in Europe. While the country still has a reputation as a rare bastion of conservative Catholic culture in an ever-more-loudly roaring sea of secularism and degeneracy, anti-Catholicism is on the rise even in Poland.

According to a new report from Poland’s Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church (ISKK), acts of hostility and aggression against Catholics, especially clergy, are increasing. Nearly half (49.7 percent) of Catholic priests responding to the survey reported that they had experienced “some form of aggression” within the past year, ranging from verbal mockery in the streets and hateful comments online to physical assault and violent attacks.

Over 40 percent of priests responding to the survey said that they had been verbally abused, mocked, or threatened, with one third of priests reporting that this behavior occurred online. Nearly 4 percent of priests responding said that they had been physically assaulted or attacked, although instances of vandalism against Catholic churches have also increased, with roughly 20 percent of priests reporting acts of vandalism or destruction of church property and over 15 percent reporting disruptions of Masses.

Very few priests (fewer than 20 percent) who said that they had experienced these acts of aggression reported the events to authorities. In a plurality of cases (46.2 percent), the priests said that the aggression was not serious enough to warrant reporting, but nearly a quarter expressed some reluctance to make a formal complaint and just over 6 percent expressed a fear of retaliation from the person being reported. Additionally, less than 60 percent of priests surveyed said that they felt safe wearing a cassock or clerical collar in public and nearly 20 percent of priests who do wear a cassock or collar said that they actually felt “unsafe or very unsafe” doing so.

Over 95 percent of priests surveyed said that they believed acts of aggression to be inspired by negative portrayals of priests and the Catholic Church in media, and over 90 percent said that this negative perception of priests and the Church was worsened or exacerbated by the increasing political division in Poland.

Professor Krzysztof Koseła, chairman of the ISKK’s Scientific Council, reported that acts of aggression against Catholic priests first began being reported and recorded in higher numbers in 2014 but have “exploded” since then. The majority of priests (85.9 percent) agreed that aggression against priests in Poland has increased over the course of the past decade; less than 1 percent said that it has decreased. Koseła also faulted the negative portrayal of Catholic clergy in media for the rise in aggression, but also attributed the phenomenon to “the clash between Christianity and liberalism, or the culture war.”

Jesuit priest Leszek Gęsiak, a spokesman for Poland’s Catholic bishops, noted that aggression and violence against priests and the Catholic Church spiked in 2020, after Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that abortion would remain illegal. Gęsiak  recalled churches being vandalized, rectory windows being smashed, and protests being organized to disrupt Sunday Masses. “It turns out that this aggression has become part of the everyday life of priests,” he lamented.

Catholicism has a rich history in Poland, with the nation formally adopting the Faith in 966 when the ruler Meszko I was baptized. The Polish remained Catholic for centuries, resisting Orthodoxy from the East and Protestantism from the West. Jesuit priests were very active in Poland in the late medieval ages and are largely credited with preventing the spread of Protestantism in the country.

In recent years, however, the practice and influence of Catholicism in Poland has waned. While just over 70 percent of Poles still identify as Catholic, according to the latest data available from the national census, that number is down from nearly 88 percent in 2011. Even with such nominally high numbers of Catholics, the number of Poles practicing the Faith has declined sharply: from an already-low 37 percent in 2019 to 28 percent in 2021. ISKK deputy director Marcin Jewdokimow noted that previously-recorded declines in Mass attendance had been “constant” and incremental, but added, “This time we’re dealing with a collapse.” Jewdokimow predicted a “rebound” but 2022 only saw Mass attendance rise from 28 percent to 29.5 percent. Out of those who attend Mass, less than half present themselves to receive Holy Communion: 12.9 percent in 2021 and 13.9 percent in 2022.

While other European nations, such as France, Spain, and Germany have also seen increases in aggression and violence against Catholic priests and churches, many of the most aggressive and violent acts are attributable to Muslim immigrants pouring into those countries from Third World countries in Africa and the Middle East. Poland, notoriously, has stringent border control and asylum policies, heavily restricting the Islamic influx inundating much of the rest of Europe.

Anti-Catholic Progressivism

The rise in aggression against Catholic priests and churches in Poland must be attributed to the increasing influence exerted by progressivism and secularism. Catholic leaders in Poland have frequently aligned themselves in recent years with the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which maintained power from 2015 until the 2023 elections. Many of the positions espoused by PiS — such as strong opposition to abortion and the LGBT agenda and vocal support for families — overlapped with Catholic moral teaching.

However, whether or not the Church in Poland came to be seen as too openly a political force, progressive and secular goals are diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Catholic Church. In addition to the rise to power of the globalist, European Union-affiliated Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the gradually increasing aggression and attacks against Catholicism seem to suggest that the traditional and moral bastion which Poland has been for centuries may be beginning to crumble.

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