News
Featured Image
Pro-abortion activists, holding signs saying 'Catholics also need abortion', interrupt Mass in Poznań Cathedral this past weekend.WTK / YOUTUBE

POLAND, October 26, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― Bands of pro-abortion activists attacked Catholic churches in Polish cities yesterday, amidst days of protest following a historic pro-life legal ruling that eugenic abortion violates the Polish Constitution.

“Crowds of people took to the streets screaming ‘Get the f*** out’,” journalist Krystian Kratiuk told LifeSiteNews over email, and explained that this is the “official slogan” of the four-day-old pro-abortion protest.

“On Sunday they organized an action of attacking churches, entering them, interrupting Masses and shouting ‘get the f*** out’ in front of [them],” Kratiuk added.

“Left-wing MPs do the same and the mainstream journalists loudly support the crime, as interrupting Mass is in Poland.”

Warsaw, Krakow, and Poznań were among the cities in which Catholic churches were targeted for attack yesterday.  For example, pro-abortion protesters invaded Poznań Cathedral during Mass, chained themselves to the altar rails and occupied the historic building for a few hours. Their signs expressed such sentiments as “Catholics also need abortion” and “Shame.”

On Saturday they had demonstrated outside Poznań’s Bishop’s Palace and some forced their way inside.

“Mostly the protests look like this: they enter the church with their signs and stand before the altar with them,” Poznań native Bartosz Skrzypczak, 20, told LifeSiteNews over social media.

“But some of them are much more aggressive, as those in Poznań.”

Faithful Catholics across the country took upon themselves the task of protecting their churches from the pro-abortion demonstrators. One Pole, Piotr, 32, told LifeSiteNews that he helped patrol the streets of Krakow from 9 PM until midnight last night.

“It was a bottom-up movement,” he explained, “inspired by some people connected to [political party] Konfederacja, with a special involvement of people in the National Movement.”

“They decided to go into the streets to try to protect churches from being profaned or destroyed by the leftists. More people got involved, such as me ― I am not connected to any organization.”

The Krakow defenders met outside the offices of the Archdiocese of Krakow, where they divided into patrols to cover the city. Piotr helped patrol the area north of Krakow’s “Rynek” or central market square.

“We were patrolling the streets going from one church to another to make sure there were no flyers around, no posters anywhere, and if we had the chance, we removed [graffiti] written on the walls,” he said.

“Fortunately, there was no violence involved.”

Piotr’s patrol cleared away coat hangers, the perennial symbol of the pro-abortion movement, and put any candles left behind in front of memorials for the unborn.

There had been a pro-abortion demonstration outside the archdiocesan offices, featuring posters, candles and coat hangers. When Piotr’s patrol returned at around 11 PM, the crowd had mostly dissolved, leaving only a few people to prevent the faithful Catholics from cleaning up the mess left behind.

“Some of them looked like thugs, so we didn’t want to be confronted by them,” Piotr said, noting also that there was a police presence to prevent violence. He confirmed that pro-abortion protestors screamed profanities but only when in large groups. He also witnessed people on both sides of the issue arguing “in a civilized manner.”

The famous pro-life activist Dr. Bawer Aondo-Akaa, PhD, who is half Nigerian, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, was present at last night’s protest and counter-protest outside the archdiocesan offices.

Piotr suggested that the attacks on Catholic churches and against a pro-life legal victory are unheard of in Poland.

“Such a decision by the supreme court would have not [sparked] such violence even five years ago,” he said.

“Ever since the corona crisis started, ever since the pressure on society has been so great, people have really been on edge. I think this was a spark that made people already stressed out really aggressive and even more stressed.”

At the same time, Piotr identified the far-left so-called “Committee for the Defence of Democracy” (KOD) and its pro-abortion wing Strajk kobiet(“women’s strike”) as the principal instigators of the attacks on churches.

“Their main leader is Marta Lempart,” he said. “She used to work for KOD, and it is suspected that KOD was financed by George Soros in the past.”

Poland alone against pro-abortion attacks

Journalist Grzegorz Górny told LifesiteNews by email that Polish Catholics are saddened that the most dramatic response to Poland’s historic victory for the unborn was the wave of church attacks. He suggested that they feel betrayed by the Vatican and Catholics around the world.

“Polish Catholics feel lonely after the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal,” he wrote.

“We are witnessing a great attack against Poland: in the European Parliament, in the Western media, among the EU political elite. Polish leftists have been organizing street demonstrations for four days, they are aggressive, throw stones at the police, destroy the offices of PiS MPs, paint offensive slogans on churches (and even on the Ronald Reagan monument in Warsaw), and disrupt Holy Masses,” he continued.

“There were no voices of support from around the world for the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, the ruling right wing and Polish Catholics. Nobody said it was a historic event. Nobody said that the Polish pro-life decision goes against all global trends.”

“Francis didn’t say a word during the Angelus. [The Vatican newspaper] ‘Osservatore Romano’ and [Italian Catholic journal] ‘Avvenire’ published only short information [pieces] without a word of comment. Even in Catholic media in the world there are no positive comments. There is silence or short information without comment. We have the impression that nobody in the Catholic world cares about it.”

Last Thursday, following many years of lobbying by Poland’s pro-life movement through the nation’s parliamentary system, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that aborting unborn children because they had Down syndrome, other genetic conditions or illnesses was unconstitutional.

To congratulate the Polish pro-life movement for their historic victory in defense of human live, and to offer emotional and spiritual support, please contact: 

Adw. Jerzy Kwaśniewski, President

The Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture

Zielna 39

00-108 Warszawa

Poland

Tel: +48 22 404 38 50

Fax +48 22 127 91 25

[email protected]

 

&

 

Fundacja Pro-Prawo do Życia

ul. J. I. Kraszewskiego 27/22 05-800 Pruszków 

Poland

Tel: +48 608 594 158

[email protected]