Annual Pilgrimage of Parliamentarians and Senators
2 February 2012
Fr. Stanisław Tomoń
On 2 February, the Feast of Our Lady of Candlemas, the 23 Pilgrimage of Parliamentarians took place which gathered about 50 parliamentarians and senators in Jasna Góra. The representatives of political parties like: the Law and Justice, Poland is the Most Important, Solidary Poland, Civic Platform and the Polish People’s Alliance party arrived at the sanctuary.
Parliamentarians, who attended the Holy Mass in the Chapel of the Miraculous Picture, were greeted by the sub-prior of Jasna Góra, Father Mieczysław Polak. The homily was given by Fr. Paweł Powierz, a priest of parliamentarians and chaplain of the Seym chapel. He encouraged the parliamentarians to do examination of conscience for their responsibility for homeland and said: - partitions of Poland lasted for 123 years. And Poland would not exist if it had not been for the children in Września, our Homeland would not exist if we did not pray in Polish or live according to the Decalogue. Poland would not exist if it had not been for sacrifice, devotion because we were brought up in this way by our fathers and grandfathers. Maybe life was poor but everybody knew that homeland is the most important. – And we had to remember that because we are inscribed in a kind of a historical sequence, from the times of Mieszko till our times. The faith in holiness and love to homeland must be passed to other generations. It should be done in a wise and responsible way. And the future of our homeland depends on you, dear parliamentarians who create the law of the Dearest Republic of Poland - the chaplain of parliamentarians emphasized. At the end of the Eucharist the parliamentarians and senators entrusted the future of our homeland to Mary, saying prayer ‘Under your protection’..
– Nowadays our homeland is experiencing difficult moments – Mariusz Błaszczak, the chairman of the Law and Justice said to the Press Bureau of Jasna Góra, who also had taken part in this pilgrimage. – When we look at what is happening in the Polish Seym, when some parliamentarians think that in the Chamber of Parliament the cross should not hang, we deal with a big crisis of faith – he emphasized. – I am sure that these values will survive and that the will of the nation always faithful to Christ for over a thousand years will be stronger than some political aspirations of some parliamentarians who breach our fundament on which our civilisation, our culture and our value system are based. On the way back to Warsaw, the parliamentarians went to Piotrków Trybunalski, to God’s Mother – the Patroness of Polish Parliamentarians.
(AA)
"Niedziela" 07/2012