Poland complains to Vatican over bishops’ anti-government and anti-migrant remarks

Poland has called on the Vatican to take action against two Polish bishops who recently made “harmful and misleading” remarks criticising the government and expressing concern about mass migration.

In a protest submitted by Poland’s ambassador to the Holy See, Adam Kwiatkowski, the foreign ministry accused the bishops of “slandering the government”, “indicating clear support for nationalist groups”, and “undermining fundamental principles of human dignity”.

The dispute stems from a pilgrimage last week to Jasna Góra Monastery, Poland’s holiest Catholic shrine, organised by Catholic broadcaster Radio Maryja.

In a homily on Sunday, Wiesław Mering, bishop emeritus of Wlocławek, declared that Poland “is ruled by political gangsters” and “people who call themselves Germans”.

He also said that “our borders are threatened from both the west and the east” and approvingly quoted the words of a 17th-century poet who said that “a German will not be a brother to a Pole”.

Meanwhile, earlier during the pilgrimage, Antoni Długosz, auxiliary bishop emeritus of Częstochowa, warned that “for decades, the Islamisation of Europe has been progressing through mass immigration” and that “illegal immigrants…create serious problems in the countries they arrive in”.

He expressed support for the Border Defence Movement (ROG) established this year by nationalist leader Robert Bąkiewicz to patrol the border with Germany and seek to prevent it from returning migrants who have crossed the border from Poland illegally.

In response, Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, on Sunday publicly criticised the remarks, saying that he “considers inciting against refugees in the name of the church, whose founder was a refugee, intellectually inconsistent”.

On Tuesday, Poland’s foreign ministry announced that it has submitted a formal protest to the Vatican regarding the bishops’ remarks.

It said that Mering’s comment about the Polish government identifying as German “suggests a fundamental national disloyalty on the part of the government”. Such an “accusation is unacceptable from the perspective of sovereign authorities elected in a democratic process and legitimated by the people”.

The foreign ministry argues that Mering’s remarks contradict the concordat governing relations between Poland and the Holy See – which sets out mutual respect between Church and government – as well as canon law, which states that clergy should not actively participate in politics.

“The words of the two bishops mentioned are shameful and unworthy of the institution they represent and the faithful,” wrote the foreign ministry. “The voice of the Catholic church in Poland is respected…We wouldn’t want such comments to be labelled as incitement or even hate speech.”

“We kindly suggest that appropriate consequences be taken against the bishops…so that similarly unfortunate, false and unjustified statements do not appear in the future in public discourse, tarnishing the good name of the Catholic church,” concluded the letter.

It noted that “the Holy See has exclusive authority to appoint bishops, but this authority also imposes the obligation to bear the consequences of the actions of those appointed, including dismissing them, if they exceed the scope of good relations or violate the principles described in the concordat”.

The church retains a strong influence in Poland, where over 70% of the population identify as Catholics. However, it has also faced accusations of exploiting that influence to interfere in political matters.

Main image credit: Grzegorz Skowronek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl