Wojciech Starzyński, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the “Rodzice Szkoła” Foundation, decided to send an open letter to Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, MP from the left, regarding her statements about symbols related to religion in public spaces.
I follow with interest your statements about the removal of all symbols related to the Catholic religion from public space as part of the separation of church and state.
However, I am sorry to say that your actions, limited to recent times, and especially to the person of St. John Paul II, are incomplete (arbitrary) and do not take into account the wider context of more than a thousand years of Polish history. Perhaps it stems from a lack of knowledge, perhaps from a lack of deeper reflection, perhaps from a deliberate omission. I cannot answer this question, but I expect it from you, in the hope that it will be good for the deep debate that the Poles are interested in. However, without going into the reasons for this neglect, I would like to remind you that there are still a number of religious symbols in the public space, the removal of which should become the subject of interest of the Member of Parliament and your political friends. Due to their number and variety, I will only pay attention to the most important in my opinion:
1. There are still streets, squares, schools and various educational and cultural institutions in Poland, whose patrons are people deeply connected to the Catholic Church. I can’t list them all, but it’s worth remembering, among others: about st. Wojciech, patron of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, Jan Długosz, an outstanding Polish chronicler, Jesuit Piotr Skarga, preacher of King Sigismund III Vasa, priests Stanisław Brzóska, Ignacy Skorupka and Jerzy Popieluszko, who paid with their lives for fighting for a free, independent Poland, the blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, a long-time prisoner of the communist secret police, and a number of other clerics remembered by Polish society;
2. Let me mention separately people of science, culture and art who were Catholic priests or who promoted Catholic values with their works, and who should also not be forgotten. These include Nicolaus Copernicus, Bishop Ignacy Krasicki and Jan Matejko. Therefore, it is worth considering removing the statue of Nicolaus Copernicus in the center of Warsaw, taking the works of Ignacy Krasicki from school and the paintings of Jan Matejko, such as “Kazanie Skarga” and “Bitwa pod Grunwald” , in which a large part of the characters are monks with crosses, in the museum deposits on their breasts (admittedly wicked, but Catholic nonetheless).
3. And finally, driving through Poland, we see a number of roadside crosses, shrines and statues of the Mother of God. We should also remember to liquidate them to protect the feelings of your supporters. In this area, I suggest starting with the Papal Cross on Józef Piłsudski Square in Warsaw and the “Three Crosses” monument in Gdańsk.
Dear Member, because of the scope of the activities to be undertaken to carry out your plans, I limit myself to these few issues in the hope that they will be of interest to your political camp and your supporters and become an important part of the upcoming election campaign.
Kind regards
Wojciech Starzyński
Source: wPolityce