Ethical Atheist,

Having enough time to write a new letter I decided  to send you this one.  It concerns Radio Maryja, a polish radio, which some people, especially Poles and descendant of Poles in many countries like USA, Canada, Deutschland and so on and obviously in Poland, love to hear.  Radio Maryja is constantly being lead by father Rydzyk.  He is very important for the listeners of this Radio.  They call him  - father director.  Which is amazing, in polish Parliament there are deputies that  address firstly to him then to Marshal of the Parliament, to the deputies, especially when he (father Rydzyk) is watching the deliberation from the places intended for press, tv and public - they begin, they used to begin their harangue by saying "Father Director" only after they use the officially received (or customary) formula.  Radio Maryja had a political party.  I mean there's a political party which is strongly supported by this Radio and its listeners - LPR- Liga Polskich Rodzin- the League of Polish Families.   One day a woman - deputy of this party, during her harangue started to pray, which was a deplorable event also for some believers - it's like making the most of religion - using the religious feeling of people for their political purposes.

Also, the important and well-known clergymen of the church hierarchy sometimes criticise Radio Maryja. They admit that the radio makes it impossible to express any other opinions than these that the authors of the radio want to hear.  The radio expresses feelings of the extreme Right.  At the same time, they admire father Rydzyk's capacity to encourage people to pray together.  How do they do that?  They have circles at the churches, they meet together, they have pilgrimages.  What has struck me?  They pray to the (telephone) receiver.  There's time devoted to praying and so you can phone, firstly you must say for what you are praying, and you can pray.  At this time one can hear a little girl praying to the receiver.  It's told that the old women - the pensioner when they get their old-age pension give firstly a sum of money for the radio as it lives only off listener's payments because they don't agree for any publicity on the radio.  As a matter of fact, it's untrue that there's no publicity on the radio - they advertise "Nasz Dziennik" ("Our Daily") - they constantly encourage you to buy it.  "Nasz Dziennik" is a Catholic newspaper.  What I dislike is the way it's written, the style.  They have such headlines like: "Anti-Church" Attacks".  What they (the authors of "Nasz Dziennik") tell about atheism?  They associate this word with words like: rape, moral depravation and shallow spirit. I've found some extracts: 

"Nasz Dziennik" ("Our Daily" - Catholic newspaper) - Wielkanoc (Easter), 30.III-1.IV.2002, Nr 76(1269) "W Królestwie nastają ciemności"("It's getting dark in Kingdom")

"Przy tym społeczeństwa przekształcają się w rodzaj potwora, którego oblicze i świadomość stanowią media, będące jednocześnie głównym środkiem ateizacji, deprawacji moralnej, niszczenia ducha i godności człowieka."

"Besides, the societies transform themselves into a kind of a monster, which face and consciousness is determined by media, that are at the same time the principle mean of atheism, moral depravation, destruction of spirit and human dignity"

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"Miejsce religii zaczynają zajmować media, które odchodzą od moralności, niszczą wszelką wartość, godność, intymność, miłość duchową, a propagują seks, gwałt, brutalność, ateizm."

The place of the religion is took (is being taken) up by media that give up morality, destroy each value, dignity, intimacy, love of spirit and propagate sex, rape, brutality, atheism.

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Do you want to know what they think (the authors of "Nasz Dziennik") about American society? And about the Jews ? 

"Ogół społeczeństwa amerykańskiego jest nobliwy, rzetelny, pracowity i kontynuuje wysokie tradycje protestanckie, staroanglikańskie i katolickie, ale kultura formowana przez szczyty inteligencji zdradza już wyraźne oznaki degeneracji, co pokazują dobitnie filmy hollywoodzkie: bezideowe, pornograficzne, antykobiece, antychrześcijańskie i tylko wynoszące pod niebiosa samych Żydów." 

The whole American society is appreciable, fair, hard-working and continues high protestantism, old-Anglican and Catholic traditions but the culture formed by heights of intellectuals betray already explicit signs of degeneration what Hollywood films show distinctly- films without ideals, pornographic, anti-women, anti-Christian and only extolling same Jews to Heavens.

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The author: ks. Czesław S. Bartnik
(my translation)

And that's how they teach love... no comments
Radio Maryja opposes European Union in contradiction to the Pope John Paul II and other Catholic clerics.
Once I found a polish website made only to discredit Radio Maryja.
Many regards and happy holiday (...if you have it),

Cordially,
  Anonymous
Love to hear from you soon.

• The Christian crucifix is on every wall in schools and hospitals.

• When I was little I remember that we prayed in schools.  Now our law forbids it saying - nobody can be forced to participate in a prayer.  So, they pray only in catholic schools.

• There are some "non-clerical" newspapers which write about what the church does wrong.  One editor is a rather popular person and it's commonly known that he dislikes church.

Hello,

I occasionally read your website and find it very interesting. On the subject of Poland (where I happen to live at the moment), at the bottom of the page http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/Poland/poland_update.html you suggest that the website http://www.maryja.org is the official site of the fundamentalist-fascist Radio Maryja. In fact, this is apparently intentionally misleading, this website is a Lutheran one, and it seems to belong to some very brave Lutheran protestants whose aim is to enlighten Polish Catholics as to the true face of their church by explaining why Roman Catholicism is far from the original teaching of Jesus. The correct address for Radio Maryja is http://www.radiomaryja.pl.

Radek, Thanks for writing.  I will make the corrections on the Poland page. - Ethical Atheist

Well, I get used to send you articles about Poland.  As you may know, one or two months ago a documentary (a film) was released on Polish public TV which has created an uproar about Radio Maryja.  There is some rather serious suspicion concerning its money. (Father Rydzyk is going to also create a Catholic TV station).  There were some articles as well about what the church can do about this radio, and that the church is somehow divided in two, because of radio Maryja. I could write further about this if you are interested.  For me, it's really dubious that anyone will read it.  Poland is not an important country. 

Many regards Anonymous, Poland

Anonymous,  Thank you for writing and keeping us up to date on Radio Maryja and the new TV station.  I'm sure some of our readers are interested.  I will add your update to the Poland page at: http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/Poland/poland_update.html.  I'm curious what the general opinion is in Poland regarding the confrontation looming between America & Iraq.  Are people for it or against it?  Or do they not really care?  - Ethical Atheist

"RADIO MARYJA - protestanci, protestantyzm, luteranizm, luter, reformacja, radio maryja ojciec rydzyk rodzina radia katofaszysci katole katolicy torun sekta sekty ksiadz ksieza zakonnice bez cenzury"

Protestants, protestantism, lutheranism, lutheran, reform, radio without censure, mary, father, family radio, catholic sect