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Death to communism and its heirs, glory to Fr. Jerzy, shame on his murderers.Screenshot

(LifeSiteNews) – October 19 was not only the anniversary of the martyrdom of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, it was also Poland’s National Day of Remembering the Indomitable (niezłomnych, literally “unbroken”) Priests.

According to the Polish government, the day of commemoration was first established in 2018 as “a tribute to priests who, with their attitude, witness, bravery and steadfast patriotic stance often shed blood in defense of Poland over the centuries.” The October 19 date of Fr. Piopiełuszko’s 1984 abduction and murder by the communist regime and its so-called security service was fittingly chosen as the date for the new holiday.

The government recognizes that the Polish clergy have worked for the development of Poland since its beginnings, defending its sovereignty and supporting its soldiers. Some priests have even died for Poland, notably Father Ignacy Skorupka, a military chaplain killed on the battlefield during the 1920 Battle of Warsaw against the invading, and eventually vanquished, Red Army.

Fewer than 20 years later, Polish priests were the direct targets of both the Germans invading from the west and the Russians invading from the east. The Polish government notes that they were sent to concentration camps and killed because they were both Poles and priests. (Neither the Nazis nor the Soviets were interested in the survival of Poles who were well-educated or leaders of any kind.) A fifth of Poland’s parish priests—around 2,000 men—were murdered, 868 of them at Dachau.

After the Second World War, when Warsaw was indirectly ruled by Moscow, Polish priests continued to be persecuted. Over one hundred of them were imprisoned by 1950, and three were condemned to death although the sentence was never carried out. Approximately 1,000 Polish diocesan priests, 10% of the clergy, spent time in prison during the Stalinist era (1945 – 1956).  Cardinal—now Blessed—Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland, was himself arrested in 1953. Torture was a common occurrence.

RELATED: Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko’s faith stood firm against Marxism. How would ours fare?

The Polish government’s October 18, 2024, statement notes also that Poles “remember the clergy who did not give in to communist enslavement and, despite repression and persecution, continued their ministry, preaching the truth about Polish history, fighting for human dignity and rights.” One notable example of this was Cardinal Wyszyński’s determination to prepare the nation spiritually for the 1000th anniversary of its baptism (through the conversion of its first recognizable ruler, Mieszko I, in 966).

Of course, Blessed Stefan’s lifelong fight for Poland’s Catholic faith and culture was preceded by the work of other clergymen to preserve the national culture during the 123 years the country was partitioned and ruled by Prussia, Austria and Russia. In its 2024 statement, the government honors “the priests who, during the period of partitions, kept the memory of Poland alive, educated … generations towards freedom and spiritually prepared the nation to regain independence.”

The National Day of Commemoration of the Indominable Priests is not just a polite fiction, like National Paralegal Day. This year it—alongside the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko—was celebrated by otherwise opposed groups of soccer fans at an October 19 match between the Legia Warszawa (Warsaw) and Lechia Gdańsk teams. The Warsaw fans displayed a banner reading (to translated) “Death to communism and its heirs. Glory to Father Jerzy. Shame on his murderers.” The Gdańsk supporters displayed Fr. Popiełuszko’s portrait and an enormous banner reading “Down with Communism.”

‘Death to communism and its heirs, glory to Fr. Jerzy, shame on his murderers.’
‘Down with communism.’

Krystian Kratiuk of Polonia Christiana told LifeSiteNews via email that Fr. Jerzy’s 2010 beatification “was a huge event in Poland.”

“Every Pole knows who Father Jerzy was,” he stated. “Every family was shaken by this death at the time: almost half a million Poles attended his funeral!”

Kratiuk added that the communists in Poland killed not only Popiełuszko, but many other priests.

“From 1945 up to and including 1989, at least dozens were killed, and hundreds were imprisoned and tortured,” he stated. “That’s why the [then conservative-dominated] Sejm established a day of remembrance for them six years ago. It is worth noting that when the world wrote that communism in Poland was collapsing in 1989, that same year the so-called ‘unindicted perpetrators’ killed three more priests! The mystery of their deaths remains unexplained to this day.”

The Polish journalist also explained the political phenomenon that is the Polish soccer fan.

“Fans (kibice) in Poland, no matter what club they support, are seen as anti-communist and anti-liberal at the same time. They are simply patriots, for whom old Polish values such as God, honor and homeland are still very important,” he wrote. “From time to time they demonstrate this with large banners.”

The fans act as guardians of the national memory and don’t mind shocking foreigners with their displays.

“A couple of years ago they displayed a huge banner in a stadium depicting a man dressed in a German uniform and putting a gun to the head of a small child,” Kratiuk recalled. “The caption under this drawing reminded people of German war crimes in Poland and the heroes of the Warsaw Uprising.”

Kratiuk noted that the fans are mostly young men and that “they are the ones the liberal, anti-patriotic and anti-church media in Poland are very worried about.”

“Why? Well, it turns out that almost half of men under 40 want to vote for the KONFEDERACJA party, which could be called the equivalent of the American alt-right in Poland. [And] I think they can be called an example of a ‘normal person,’ a representative of ‘normal Poles’ and their views, especially on issues of history and patriotism.”

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