Catholic Influence Remains Strong in Poland

BALTIMORE SUN, April 5 — Religious leaders and lay analysts said the Church in Poland remains as strong or stronger today than at any time since the collapse of the communist governments in Eastern Europe a decade and a half ago, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Even as Poland has grown more affluent, secure and democratic, 97% of Poles consider themselves Catholics, according to surveys. Masses are packed on Sundays. And Polish youths are embracing traditional moral and religious views, clergy and independent scholars say.

“Look at the young people,” said Father Andrzej Fryzlewicz, chamberlain to the bishop of Krakow. “They still want to live with the Church. Though John Paul has passed away, they want to live in the way he wanted them to live. In my opinion, there is no crisis of faith.”

At memorial rites around the nation, Poles repeatedly described Pope John Paul as a father figure whose death deeply wounded them. But Krzysztof Kozlowski, deputy editor of the Catholic newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny, said the Pope was a father who expected his children to grow up.

“He has led us out of the margins of Europe, from the playground we were locked into, back behind the Iron Curtain, and out into the open,” he said. “He taught us we were part of a greater whole, and that changed the Polish mentality.”

China Arrests 2 Catholic Priests

VOICE OF AMERICA, April 4 — A U.S.-based rights group says Chinese authorities arrested two elderly priests in the days before the death of Pope John Paul.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation, which supports the underground Catholic Church in China, said in a press release April 3 that authorities detained Bishop Yao Liang. The group said that on April 1, Father Wang Jinling, also in his 80s, was arrested. The foundation said it does not know why he was detained or where he is being kept.

The foundation said that before his March 30 arrest, Bishop Yao, who is in his 80s, had been under mounting pressure from authorities to sever ties with the Holy Father and join China’s state-run official Catholic church.

According to the report, the Chinese government contends there are four million Catholics in China, but Western authorities estimate the figure is closer to 12 million. Officially, they are limited to worshipping in churches that are not considered to be under the authority of the pope.

WorldPride Festival ‘Would Desecrate’ Jerusalem

THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 31 — Leaders of Jerusalem’s Christian, Jewish and Islamic communities said a 10-day WorldPride festival and parade in Jerusalem would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable, The New York Times reported.

“They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable,” Shlomo Amar, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, said March 30 at a news conference in Jerusalem attended by Israel’s two chief rabbis, the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three senior Muslim prayer leaders. “It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it.”

According to the report, WorldPride 2005 is planned for Aug. 18-28 and is expected to draw thousands of visitors from dozens of countries. The first festival was held five years ago in Rome. At that time, Pope John Paul II expressed his regret that the homosexual event had gone forward, calling it an “offense to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world.”