Church to Patriotism and Nationalism

Such an knowing of love for the homeland is not an invention of “left” or modern political correctness. It has roots in teaching St. Thomas of Aquinas.

He recalled this article by the Catholic Information Agency as early as 2019. Those words are inactive in me today.

71.3 percent of Poles declare themselves Catholic. But what precisely does this declaration mean? For if individual belongs to a spiritual community, then he should at least effort to live by its principles, alternatively than extracting only symbols, festivals, trials and national banners from Christianity.

The Gospel cannot be reconciled with contempt for strangers. 1 cannot proclaim the love of one's neighbor, and at the same time hatred the Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, migrants or anyone who is pointed to by political propaganda. You can't kneel at the altar and then humiliate a man just due to the fact that he was born on the another side of the border.

Therefore, I ask directly: did priests halt effectively communicating Christian values, or is the religion of most Poles just an empty declaration? Catholicism with metrics, traditions and habits, but without the Gospel, without love and without Christian conscience?

Is it frequently lacking in courage or clarity on the part of the clergy to make it clear that putting a nation above God and another man is simply a sin in Christendom?

KAI

Church to Patriotism and Nationalism

December 18, 2019

The concept of “nationalism” arises in the second half of the 19th, usually meaning “national interest” selfishly understood, in opposition to another nations. Its philosophical foundation was created by then social Darwinism, characterized by the knowing of social life in terms of combating another nations as a motor of development.

1. Leon XIII. On the obligations of Christians as citizens" of 1890, he confirmed the request for the love of the homeland by all citizen to be willing to give his life, but emphasized that it must be love free from hatred. He put it on the same level and with love for the Church, as a center setting out the essential catalogue of values of social life.

2. Pius X. 11 April 1909: "Patriotism is not a hatred of another nations, but a love that gives our country and our people first place in our hearts."

3. Benedict XV, whose pontificate fell upon the times of planet War I. He saw the main origin of the war in the common hatred of nations and classes. He promoted the fact about the universal brotherhood of the peoples, which should be the foundation of peace.

Criticism of nationalistic idolatria.

4. Pius XI.

• In his 1922 encyclical "Ubi arcano Dei" he opposed "unsavory passions, hiding under the cloak of public good or patriotism, which should be attributed to hatred and conflict between nations". He criticized the "unmoderate nation of his love," informing that "whosoever can be taken forgets that all nations as part of the large household of mankind are bound by the knot of brotherhood, and that another nations besides have the right to life and to prosperity." He added that "justice exalts the nations, and sin makes men miserable."

Condemnation of Fascism and National Socialism

• Pius XI besides harshly criticized Italian fascism, with which the Church was in dispute in Italy and then the emerging German fascism. The nationalist ideology of Italian fascism was laic and Mussolini created it on the basis of a doctrine which considered the highest value a strong and authoritarian state. It was characterized by contempt for democracy, dislike of Marxism, the thought of social solidarity, anti-Semitism and support for the thought of state eliteism. Pius XI treated this fresh ideology as a kind of idolatry and branded it in an encyclical about the Catholic Action: “Non abbiamo bisogno” from 1931. Analogical, in his next encyclical “Caritate Christi compulsi” criticized “excited patriotism and exaggerated nationalism”, informing of the resulting “dead hatred of 1 against another”.

Much further went the German ideology of national socialism, in which the nation (seen in addition by the prism of the race) was a superior value, recognizing as the only law what benefits it. The Nazi cult of force combined with harsh anti-Semitism led to contempt for Christianity as a weak religion based on Semitic threads. In the 3rd Reich, national education was opposed to spiritual education.

Pius XI powerfully rejected this ideology. In his celebrated encyclical “Mit Brennender Sorge. About the position of the Catholic Church in the German Reich" in 1937 stated that this "who is above the scale of the earthly values of either the race or the nation, or the state or another fundamental values of the human community, which, in the temporal order, occupy an essential and honorable place and make them the highest standard of all values, including spiritual ones, and worship them idolatrously, he overturns and misrepresents the order of things created and established by God--man and far from actual religion in God and from the worldview corresponding to specified faith." He explained that “he who follows the Old German-Pre-Christian beliefs puts into place of the individual God various impersonal fates, this contradicts the wisdom of God and Providence, and specified a man cannot claim the law to include him as a believer in God.” He recalled that "God gave his commandments as ultimate ruler and they substance regardless of time and space, country and race."

5. Pius XII in the encyclical "Summi Pontificatus" announced on October 20, 1939 immediately after the outbreak of the war, he powerfully criticized the state's idolatria, explaining that "ideology attributing power to the state almost unlimited becomes a fatal mistake not only for the interior life of nations, for their prosperity and moral development, but besides for the common relations of nations, as it breaks the link that should be between states, deprives the power and permanence of the laws of nations, opens the way to violating the rights of others and hinders all knowing and peaceful coexistence."

Attempts to Christianity Nationalism

However, the nationalist movement was different in conventional Catholic countries specified as Poland or Spain, although the utmost manifestations of it raised concerns about the church hierarchy. It is worth noting that the leaders of the national thought in these countries have been subject to a gradual “Catholicisation”.

The best evidence is the evolution of Roman Dmowski's reasoning – the leader of the Polish national camp. Young Dmowski wrote in his book “The Thoughts of a Modern Pole” from 1908, referring to the thought of political Darwinism, that the individual's attitude to the nation should stay outside the sphere of Christian ethics and be based on the rule of “national selfishness”. But 20 years later, in the brochure “Church, nation, state,” Dmowski stated that “Catholicism is not an addition to Polishness, a colouring of it in a certain way, but it is in its essence.” He added that "the effort to separate Catholicism from Poland, to separate the nation from religion and from the Church is to destruct the very essence of the nation." Polish national movement gradually took on a Catholic character and tried to execute under specified banners. As 1 of its tasks, the National organization (created in 1928) postulated "the construction of a Catholic state of the Polish people".

This in turn led to the tendency to instrumentalize the Church, in peculiar through the generation of young endings, gathered in the All-Polish Youth and later in national-radical movements. In 1933, as part of the SN, the Young Nationalist Union was separated, and a year later, the National-Radical Camp. It was declared that ONR "stands on the basis of Catholic principles" and the future social and economical strategy is to be based on Catholic morality. At the same time, he was characterized by serious anti-Semitism, as evidenced, among others, by the request to remove civilian rights from Jews.

This naturally raised the concerns of part of the hierarchy with primate August Hlond at the head, who in this reasoning saw a threat. A sharp dispute between the Primate and the All Poland Youth took place at the organization of academic pilgrimages to Jasna Góra. joined to vows in 1936. At the time it was about trying to instrumentalize and take over these pilgrimages – organized by the Church – under the banners of youth national organizations.

Predicting these disputes in Poland Pius XI, knowing the reality of the situation, as Archbishop Achille Ratti was a nuncio, he was critical of the relation of much of the clergy with National Democracy. This is why he promoted August Hlond to the office of the Polish primate, who with a strong distance referred to any nationalist tendencies in Poland.

In Spain, in the 1930s, the thought of "defence of Spanishness" was born among the nationalists there, promoting national messianism and stating that the Spanish people were "just to bring the sign of the cross to the world." Representatives of this stream referred to Spain as “modern Israel”, explaining that “the mission of the Spanish peoples is to teach all the peoples of the earth that they can be saved and that this honor depends only on their religion and will” (Defensa de la Hispanidad, 1931). General Francisco Franco later referred to these ideas.

A Europe Without Nationalism

World War II and the Holocaust revealed a dramatic and destructive face of nationalism. Therefore, the creators of post-war Europe tried to overcome them with all their strength by building a fresh European order, which was powerfully supported by the Holy See.

Pope Pius XII, erstwhile the construction of a fresh architecture of global relations was started based on the thought of a united Europe, claimed that the peoples of Europe should not return to the model of a state that is closed within itself. He pointed out that the thought of a nationalist state could be a threat to another nations and to peace in Europe. He so powerfully supported the thought of European integration, formulated by prominent Catholics: Robert Schumann, Konrad Adenauer or Alcide de Gasperi. After the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, the Pope stressed that "the institution of the community of nations, which is the subject of strong aspirations, represents a transition from lower to higher, i.e. from the multiplicity of sovereign states to the top possible unification".

Vatican Council II

The Second Vatican Council in its social teaching increasing out of Christian personalism powerfully supported the ideas of Catholic universalism, spiritual freedom, pluralism, the rule of human dignity and the concept of spiritual and political community autonomy. He besides warned against the temptation to usage the Church in an instrumental way to meet certain political goals.

The Council, promoting the thought of universal human rights in its teaching, pointed to many of their dangers. The pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern planet of "Gaudium et Spes", states that "any discrimination on fundamental individual rights, whether social or cultural, due to gender, race, skin color, social position, language or religion, should be overcome and eliminated as contrary to God's purpose"

Such a imagination of the Church's presence in the modern planet stood in opposition to the earlier national environments, even the most Catholic ones – the thought of building a “Catholic party”, “Catholic nation” or “Catholic state” based on the Church's alliance with nationalistic movements.

John XXIII in his most crucial encyclical “Pacem in Terris” called for principles in global order specified as truth, justice, solidarity, freedom and love, in the light of which all nations are equal and sovereign. "The resulting disputes, common prejudices or hostility between nations, according to Pope Roncalle, must be resolved not militarily, but through dialogue, agreements and agreements". He recalled that any "national good" could not be separated from the "common good" of the full human community.

New to the Church's social teaching by John XXIII was the appeal for the rights of national minorities surviving within individual states. In the same encyclical, he warned that "any activity directed against these national groups and intended to limit their strength and improvement is simply a serious violation of the obligations of justice" (94). At the same time, he asked for aid for political refugees and migrants.

Paul VI, in the 1967 encyclical "Populorum Progressio", appealed for the common brotherhood of the peoples, stressed that the biggest obstacle was "to overestimate his own nation and worship his own race." He hoped that "the common prejudices of nations and their selfishness would in time be overcome by a stronger sense of cooperation and a more vibrant sense of solidarity" (64).

John Paul II's contribution

The concept of personalism based on the thought of human dignity was developed especially by John Paul II. And the nation's attitude was to "reject concepts and practices that treat the nation and the state as a self-existent reality and put them above all another values" (World Day of Peace Message of 2000). The origin of the dangers of nationalism was seen in the misconception of the human individual and the associated false knowing of human freedom. Thus, he opposed nationalism to the notion of patriotism, treating the second as a natural love for his homeland. But he emphasized that it should affect accepting another identity of national minorities.

John Paul II opposed nationalism, at the same time emphasized the importance of national community and sovereignty. He was possibly the first pope to emphasize so powerfully the request to defend the sovereignty of individual nations. The nation recognized as an absolutely essential component both for shaping and preserving human cultural identity. In his Paris speech at the UNESCO office of 1980, he recalled that "the nation is this large community of people who are united by various binders but, above all, by culture." In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in fresh York on 5 October 1995, he explained that "the fundamental difference that exists between mad nationalism, proclaiming contempt for another nations and cultures, and patriotism, which is simply a decent love for its own homeland." He explained that "nationalism, especially in its more extremist forms, is an antithesis of actual patriotism and so present we cannot let utmost nationalism to spawn fresh forms of totalitarian aberrations". He explained that "this task remains in force besides erstwhile the foundation of nationalism is simply a spiritual principle, as is unfortunately the case with certain forms of alleged fundamentalism".

At the beginning of the fresh millennium, he warned that “in fresh decades, in which we have witnessed the advancement of globalisation and the worrying phenomenon of the rebirth of aggressive nationalisms, cultural force and widespread racial discrimination, human dignity is at large risk” (Angel of the Lord, August 26, 2001).

Poland John Paul II understood more in a cultural than cultural context. “I am the boy of a nation that has endured the most terrible experiences of history, which neighbors have repeatedly sentenced to death, and he has remained alive and remains himself. He retained his own identity and retained his own sovereignty as a nation in the midst of partition and business – without taking as a basis any another means of physical power than his own culture, which in this case proved to be a power greater than those powers," he said in UNESCO in 1980.

In turn, on the pages of his book Memory and Identity, he emphasized that "Poland is in fact multiplicity and pluralism, not tightness and closure", adding that it is close to the "Jagielloński" dimension of Polishness, understood as a multiethnic national creation. So he criticized nationalism due to the fact that "it recognizes only the good of its own people and strives for it, not counting on the rights of others." He opposed this notion of patriotism, which, unlike nationalism, "accredits to all another nations the same law as to its own, and so is the way to order social love."

The knowing of patriotism by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński besides grew out of Christian personalism. He recognized the nation as 1 of the most basic communities in which the identity of man is formed. The love of his own nation was linked with a serious theological reflection on the subject. He was the creator of the first concept of “theology of the nation”. This concept comes from the presumption that the nation is simply a natural community, just as natural as the family, and that it is simply a temporal carrier of certain supernatural values.

So he called for the moral revival of the nation, which was to serve, among others, the large Novena and the Jasna Góra Vows of the Nation. This was accompanied by hope – present in the Polish reasoning since the times of Vilnius philomats – that the moral revival of the nation and the entrustment of God will service in the further consequences of regaining lost independence.

At the same time, cardinals. Wyszyński clearly distinguished the right patriotism from “the distorted patriotism”. On his initiative, the Polish Episcopate issued a "Letter of Christian patriotism" in 1972, in which bishops remind us that love for his own nation must be free from hatred for others, due to the fact that "hate is simply a decaying force that leads to illness and degeneration of well understood patriotism". And referring to fresh history, bishops state that “our times have richly provided us with repellent examples of perverted patriotism in the form of racism, all kinds of selfish chauvinism and ill-fated nationalism.”

Faced with the rebirth of nationalist attitudes in Polsce

The Church in Poland, in view of the rebirth of nationalist movements, has been forced to talk on this subject frequently in fresh years. During the 1050th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland on 3 May 2016 at Jasna Góra, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki warned against misconception of patriotism. He urged that natural and affirmative love for the nation and sensitivity to the request to defend their homeland should not be born into nationalism.

And after the Holy Mass for the members of the extremist and National Camp on 19 April 2016 in Białystok, Fr Jack Mesadlar recalled that there should be no “use of temples to preach views of abroad Christian faith”.

The next step of the Episcopal was to entrust an in-depth analysis of this issue to the Social Affairs Council of the KEP, chaired by Archbishop Józef Kupiny, the metropolitan of Wroclaw. The consequence of her work was a social letter from April 2017 entitled "The Christian form of patriotism". erstwhile again, in relation to the current challenges, there was a discrimination between patriotism as a affirmative and desirable phenomenon and nationalism based on national egoism, which is contrary to Christianity.

The letter states that “any effort to rise one’s own nation to the rank of absolute or to search Christian justification for spreading national conflicts and feuds must be considered unacceptable and idolatry. Love for your own homeland can never be an excuse for contempt, aggression and violence."

They state that "nationalism, especially in its extremist forms, is an antithesis of actual patriotism". In mention to John Paul II's teaching, they explain that "the fundamental difference that exists between mad nationalism, proclaiming contempt for another nations and cultures, and patriotism, which is simply a worthy love for its own homeland." They remind us that "a actual patriot never seeks the welfare of his own nation at the expense of others."

They besides explain that "patriotism does not impose a rigid ideological cultural format, much more political." Therefore, they advance the knowing of patriotism in a broader context as a civic patriotism that "includes all citizens of the country, not just 1 cultural group".

They besides make a discrimination of large importance, showing 2 parallel currents of reasoning on this subject present in Polish history. "Two currents are intertwined: the current of indigenous, cultural and cultural Polishness". They powerfully support the latter, recalling the valuable heritage of the multicultural erstwhile Republic, and in peculiar mention to the "Polishness of the Jagiellonian era", which was so close to John Paul II. Following him, they remind us that “it allowed the creation of the Republic of many nations, many cultures, many religions.”

At the same time, they remind us that "under Polish heaven and on Polish dirt they lived alongside each other, they sought regular bread, they prayed, they created their own customs and culture Catholics of various rites, Orthodox, Protestants, Jews and Muslims". They besides point out that at a time erstwhile Europe was plagued by wars and spiritual persecution, the Republic remained a haven of hospitality and tolerance." This is what “the model of hospitable patriotism, including the inspirational achievements of neighbours and the full Christian European culture developed in Polish culture.” It was an open patriotism, thanks to which "Poles became those who wanted to become Poles, regardless of their origin".

An crucial feature of the paper is the demonstration that patriotism, especially today, should inspire us to "scultify the memory of our victims and sufferings, effort to free her from paralyzing pain, feeling hurt, and sometimes hostility." That is why "the way of forgiveness and reconciliation" is so important. At this point, they mention to the message of Francis from his visit to Poland in 2016, erstwhile he reminded of the process of Polish-German reconciliation inspired by the Church, or even Polish-Russian reconciliation – through a joint declaration of the Polish Episcopate with the Russian Orthodox Church, from August 2012.

Bishops besides point out with concern that, especially in the situation with which we are dealing present in Poland, that is, "the deep political dispute that divides our homeland today, the patriotic work besides seems to be to engage in the work of social reconciliation – by recalling the fact about the dignity of all human being, mitigating excessive political emotions, pointing out and expanding half possible and essential cooperation for Poland over divisions and protecting public life from overpoliticisation".

They admit that there is simply a request for a "reflexion over language" in Poland today, due to the fact that "the measurement of Christian and patriotic sensitivity is the expression of our own opinions with respect for – and in another words – fellow citizens in a spirit of kindness and responsibility, without simplification and harmful comparisons".

Before the Day of Judaism

The president of the Episcopal Conference returned to this subject on 17 January 2018 in connection with the Day of Judaism at the time. Analyzing many streams of nationalism, he made typologies of various forms. Among them he distinguished: integral nationalism, Christian nationalism, secular nationalism, neo-Pagan nationalism and yet chauvinism. Seeing their diversity, he stated that each of these types of nationalism points to a common trait, which is the belief that "nation is the highest good."

He besides quoted Fr. Joseph Maria Bocheński OP, who writes: “Every nationalism contains 2 claims: first, that a given nation is simply a kind of absolute, a deity standing above all else, and, therefore, an individual who should sacrifice everything for him; secondly, that a given nation is something better, more worthy, more valuable than another nations. Meanwhile, the nation is only 1 of the many groups to which man belongs. due to the fact that all man is first a associate of his family, a region, a professional group, a class. Beyond the borders of the nation, he is simply a associate of cultural and spiritual communities" (J. M. Bocheński, “Sto zabobonów”, Kraków 1992, 89-90).

To refugees

On 30 June 2016, representatives of the Catholic Church and the Churches associated with the Polish Ecumenical Council signed and announced “The Common Message of Churches in Poland on Refugees”. They recalled that “the obligations of Christians in this respect arise from the Revelation of God and Tradition, and that it is the work of the Churches to educate hearts which, by concrete acts of mercy, will come to the aid of the suffering, those who flee war, persecution and death.”

The paper recalls that “our country has frequently been a refuge for those who had to flee persecution. In the time of the Jagillons, our lands were celebrated for their hospitality. After the collapse of independence, Poles could besides experience it in another countries. In the 1980s, Western European countries helped us. A decade later Polish hospitality could be experienced by Belarusians, Ukrainians and Chechnya. Its maintenance and upbringing should be an expression of Christian sensitivity and national tradition." And the full message culminated with the words, "We trust that God will give us the light eyes of the heart, that with evangelical love we may meet Christ's call, "I was a stranger, and you received me" (Mt 25:35).

Therefore, even though the Polish authorities decided not to accept refugees from the mediate East or Africa, the Church put forward the thought of humanitarian corridors, which is effectively implemented in Italy, for example. Until now, there is no agreement from the authorities, but the discussion continues.

National Pilgrimage

As of 2013, the yearly National Environment Pilgrimages on Jasna Góra, organized by the All-Polish Youth, ONR, National Movement and the Armed Forces National Soldiers Union, became a problem. They awaken quite a few emotions due to the fact that in addition to spiritual emblems, they appear there on banners of the slogan: “Not red, not rainbow, but national Poland!”, “There is no mercy for enemies of Polishness!” ‘Together with a sickle, erstwhile with a hammer in a red riffraff’, etc.

In June 2018, the Council of the Polish Episcopal Conference on Migration, Tourism and Pilgrimage spoke on this subject, issuing a document: "Be a pilgrim of peace". "Sanctuaries must not be the place to manifest hatred towards political, social or cultural groups," we read. The Council besides points out that frequently preached during pilgrimages "the alleged patriotic sermons must not impress ideological speeches on the services of the pilgrim group".

The Episcopal Council recalls that "patriotic elements (national flags, Kombatan banners, attendees' outfits) are not incorrect during the liturgy, but provided that they do not provoke ideological unrest and strife". He besides stresses that "there is no place in holy space for the symbols of groups that rise disputes in society and divide the community of the Church."