POZNAN, Poland, October 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― Astonishing footage has appeared of Polish pro-abortion demonstrators running away as Poland’s notorious sports fans arrive to protect an ancient cathedral.
Demonstrations have broken out in cities across Poland since the nation’s Constitutional Tribunal judged on Thursday that eugenic abortion violated the Polish constitution. Encouraged by a pro-abortion organization called “Strajk Kobiet” (“Women’s Strike”) and led by activists Marta Lempart and Natalia Pancewicz, the protesters have been vandalizing Catholic churches and monuments sacred to patriotic Poles and interrupting Masses.
However, as the protesters take to the streets for the sixth night since the decision, they are increasingly finding the churches guarded by devoutly Catholic and/or patriotic men. Yesterday the official security guards for the annual Polish Independence Day March prevented a large crowd from defacing Saint Alexander’s Church in Warsaw’s Three Crosses Square.
Today it is being reported that the nation’s notorious young football (soccer) fans, not known for their piety, have decided to help protect the churches against the far-left radicals. A film of pro-abortion protesters running away from Poznan’s Archbasilica of Saints Peter and Paul shows a group of “Lech Poznań” football fans taking charge of the area.
First built in the latter half of the 10th century, the Archbasilica is the oldest cathedral in Poland.
UPDATE: LifeSiteNews has received an unconfirmed report that the monastery of Jasna Góra, home of the miraculous image of Black Madonna of Częstochowa, is one of the places coming under attack from leftists tonight.
[UPDATE, October 27, 2020, 5:42 p.m. ET] According to Fronda.pl, a Polish online news magazine, football fans from Szczecin, Częstochowa, Gdańsk, Chełm, Jasło, Andrychów, Ząbki, and Chełmża have all been protecting churches. Fans of Pogon Szczecin, a member of the highest tier Polish football division, wrote on their website, “We will not accept the desecration of memorials, murals, or churches. This will not help you in your fight: it can only be counter-productive, as for many Poles, including your relations, they are important symbols of life.”
According to their messages, the football fans are not objecting to the pro-abortion activists’ protest as much as to their targeting of religious and national symbols.
Meanwhile, Stefan Tompson, a filmmaker living in Warsaw, told LifeSiteNews, “The recent ruling around Article 38 of the Polish Constitution has ignited a huge debate around abortion in Poland. There is clearly a legitimate debate to be had, with compelling arguments on both side. Sadly, there is no debate, and protests have been hijacked by vulgar, and aggressive extremists who are marching under the slogan ‘F–k off.’”
“Bringing public discourse to this base level is in and of itself tragic,” he continued. “However, what is even more concerning is that some of the protesters have chosen to protest inside churches, disrupting Masses, verbally attacking Polish Catholics, as well as defacing churches, many of which are historical monuments.”
Tompson said that the attacks on the Church have escalated, with Polish Catholics, mostly young men, some coordinated by the organizers of the annual Independence Day March, choosing to stand guard in front of their churches to ensure they are not defaced or desecrated. “Most of them simply stood still, waiting for the storm to pass, whilst praying the rosary quietly, or singing Marian hymns,” he reported.
“Though protesters have largely outnumbered those standing in front of Churches, everything is not lost. One of my friends who stood guard outside St. Alexander’s Church in Warsaw walked up to a protester who was choking and offered her help,” Tompson said. “She later on walked up to him, and asked to pray with him, and together they said a ‘Hail Mary’: this moving story in my opinion shows that dialogue and perhaps even some form of reconciliation is possible despite diverging views of the world.”
“However, there is a culture war in Poland, which is escalating — these protests are proof of that, and they also prove that the younger generation is [becoming atheist] at a drastic speed.” Tompson indicated that he believes Poland will become more and more polarized as a result.
Developing….