STONING WITH A WORD
Fr. Ireneusz Skubiś, The Honourable Editor-in-Chief of ‘Niedziela’
I recall one of sermons given by primate Stefan Wyszyński, in which he said about the loads of stones falling on Church from communists governing in our country. Indeed, stones were falling from various sides, destroying people and works – we remember the process of bishop Czesław Kaczmarek, presented as a traitor and a criminal, or persecutions towards many priests with murders committed by ‘unknown culprits’.
Stoning – also in reference to our whole nation – is taking place today in the media world and is causing a turmoil in people’s minds, not mentioning that it may kill and change facts. To our surprise and even dread we are listening, for example, to what the world news speak about Poland and Auschwitz on Holocaust. We are accused of co-accomplishment in murdering Jews, cooperation in the bandit genocidal system.
Certainly, it was not caused from nowhere, but it had been prepared carefully for years, among the others, by removing the word ‘the Germans’ from a dictionary in reference to death camps and discreet replacing it with the phrase ‘the Nazis’.
As a result, today, surely, a lot of people in the world are not aware that death camps, such as Auschwitz, were German. So, it is good that the German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel spoke about this issue and emphasized clearly that these were the Germans who were the culprits of Holocaust. We can accuse ourselves that we did not take care of a better historical policy, that sometimes it is not clear enough. But we would never think that it is necessary for us to explain that we did not invade ourselves or we did not create the hell of death camps to our citizens.
But, in today’s media reality we must defend ourselves, we must be patient in explaining and making the issue clear. It is good that we have the government which is guarding the interests of Poland, but it is also necessary for it to have a full support, so that there would not be any voices which might contribute to raising more doubts. We must take care of being a brotherly, reliable and honest nation, which can name evil the evil, which follows moderation and friendship. This friendship should also be realized by the state towards its citizen. Also the journalist world should not base on sensational news or accusations. In media there should be objectivism and respect to dignity of another man, no matter who it would be. Here there is the need for effective work of the Media Ethics Council – but let’s leave this issue for another time.
Translation: Aneta Amrozik
„Niedziela” 7/2018 (18 II 2018)