Thousands of Poles demonstrated on Sunday to defend the reputation of former Pope John Paul II, recently accused of having concealed crimes of pedophilia when he was archbishop, in a country known for its attachment to the Catholic faith.
On horseback, in historical costume or just with a yellow and white flag of the Vatican or white and red of Poland, ten thousand Poles followed in Warsaw a “National March for the Pope” who died in April 2005, noted AFP journalists.
“A deliberate action intended to destroy authority”
Like all the others, this march was organized by Catholic organizations and circles with the support of the government and the ruling populist nationalist party (PiS). The Polish Defense Minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, notably participated. “As any honest man defends his children, his father and his mother, any Pole defends John Paul II”, could be read on one of the placards in the demonstration. “What is happening in Poland is a great scandal (…) a deliberate action intended to destroy the authority” of the Polish pope, declares a demonstrator, Alicja Fabertynowska. “We pass the test by carrying the truth, which must oppose lies, slander and insults,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted.
His chancellery, that of President Andrzej Duda and the members of the PiS have published on their sites messages in defense of the memory of the former sovereign pontiff, particularly venerated in Poland, even if the official cult of Saint John Paul II is there crack too, especially among young people. A concert is to be held in the evening on the main square of Wadowice (south), birthplace of Karol Wojtyla, organized by state television, which must be attended in particular by Mr. Morawiecki and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the PiS.
“Maxim culpa”
The latter, “thanked God for this immeasurable gift that the Polish Pope was and remains for the Church, for Poland and for the world”, in a letter to the members of his party. “We stand up to defend his honor and his good reputation,” he insisted, a few months before the legislative elections. President Duda is due to go to the Vatican on Monday to pay his respects in front of the tomb of John Paul II. The national railway company PKP distributed cream cakes appreciated by the former pope on Sunday to passengers on certain express trains, according to media reports.
The same day, however, a statue of John Paul II was vandalized in Lodz (center): his hands were covered with red paint and the base marked with an inscription “Maxima culpa” (“The greatest fault”). This inscription refers to the book by journalist Ekke Overboek “Maxima culpa. John Paul II knew”, recently published in Poland. This book and a similar report broadcast on a commercial channel claimed that the future pope had concealed cases of pedophilia, provoking a heated debate between the power and the Church, on the one hand, the liberals and the left on the other .