Batyr with fans on Jasna Góra

Jasna Góra has seen many in her history: kings, insurgents, pilgrims, and even politicians in moments of peculiar request for spiritual background. Last weekend another image was added to this gallery – the president of Poland, who appeared on the 18th National Patriotic Pilgrimage of Fans.

Official communications indicate that it was a spiritual and community celebration. From the President's speech that a form of public thanks to the electorate, which proved sufficiently resistant to "ideological fashion" and "propaganda". It's hard to get a better place for specified declarations than a national sanctuary.

The president spoke not as a guardian of constitutional balance, but as a leader of a world-view camp, which proudly states that "stadiums" and their regulars remained a bastion of right values. Thus, the head of state made a simple but effective division: they are “we”—the faithful, the patriots, the supporters—and the unnamed “they”, i.e. all others whose views do not fit in this narrative.

The irony is that the office of president is by definition not a tribal office. It is not a reward for winning elections or a grandstand to cultivate gratitude towards the most loyal groups. And yet in Czestochowa there was the opposite: a message in which religion and individual political success were intertwined into 1 message: simple, emotional and easy to remember.

Batyr presented the cheering company as a depository of national virtues, even though it has been known for years that it is as diverse as problematic. To mention Christian values in the context of groups that in the past have become celebrated for aggressive symbolism and the language of exclusion would require at least 1 conviction of distance. But that was not the sentence. Instead, there was affirmation – collective and unconditional.

In fact, it is hard to comment on this photograph. Photo: Nicholas Bujak / KPRP. Click to enlarge.

The most interesting thing, however, is that the full took place in a place that for millions of Poles remains a space of silence, prayer and individual spiritual experience. Meanwhile, Jasna Góra one more time served as a setting for a political message in which sacrum It's not as easy as it makes him credible.

Of course, it is only a symbolic presence, a tradition, a motion towards “your own”. The problem is that the president is not from being "his own." It's from being together. However, if the head of state prefers to talk to selected groups, in selected places and with the chosen message, it is hard to anticipate the remainder of citizens to feel equally represented.

So I have nothing left to do but propose to Nawrock to participate in successive pilgrimages: convicted PiS politicians, fallen developers, public home workers, influencers from TikToka and reality show fans who have not yet found their "patriotic mission".

It is about time the brothers from Jasna Góra decided to implement in the sanctuary something like “The farmer seeks his wife” or “The islands of love”. The tandeta they have been agreeing to for 20 years seemingly no longer has any barriers. erstwhile a holy place becomes an arena of jarmaric spectacles, in which there is more primitive amusement than spirituality.

By the way, it should be pointed out that the pilgrimage of supporters in the company of president Batyr fits perfectly in the answer to the question in the article entitled "Why does the Polish Catholic Church lose the faithful?".

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11.01.2026

• Photo: Mikołaj Bujak / KPRP

• current column of Baryły: > Here.

• more about Nawrock: > Here.