“We cannot give up our own identity and subjectivity, otherwise we are condemned to the fate of slaves” – Prof. Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse, political scientist, lecturer at the University of Warsaw said during the conference “Called to serve on foreign soil – according to the concepts of John Paul II, August Hlond and Robert Schuman”, which took place on November 4 in Wrocław. This conference was a summary of this year’s edition of the Animators of Poland’s Image in Europe project.
“John Paul II spoke many times about European integration, but also several times, including during his pilgrimage to his home country in 1991 in Włocławek, he pointed out that we do not have to enter Europe, because we are already in Europe. And what is even more important – We are in this Europe within a certain kind of heritage, tradition, which is, however, to a great extent connected with Christianity and we should not get rid of it in any way, because renouncing this tradition would mean that we relinquish our subjectivity” – Prof. Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse said. “In other words, we are then doomed to be a nation of slaves, because John Paul II in the same speech said that Europe has a very bad tradition, represented especially by Western Europe, that it divides nations, countries into master races and slaves. In my opinion, this tradition is not forgotten” – he clarified. In this context, the political scientist stated that “we cannot give up our own identity and our own subjectivity, otherwise we are condemned to the fate of slaves”.
He quoted the words of John Paul II regarding Poland’s entry into the European Union: “Of course, I am not against Poland’s entry into Europe, but I am against attempts to turn it into a kind of idol, a false idol. According to the supporters of this plan, joining Europe would mean introducing the entire an ultra-liberal, consumerist system, devoid of values and introduced by force of propaganda. In fact, Poland does not have to enter Europe, because it is in Europe, it is in its center. It is important that it enters it with its values, without uncritically and blindly adapting to Western customs without assimilating what is worst in them”
“In my opinion, this is something extremely important. In the sense that we do not have to enter Europe, we are in its center, but this geographical and symbolic meaning of the central position can only be maintained if we maintain our own identity, values and subjectivity” – he emphasized.
Prof. Grosse recalled that John Paul II criticized the so-called European values. Why? “Because he believed that taking the life of unborn children, or the promotion of homosexuality, or the secular concept of separating the public and religious spheres, i.e. everything that is an element of left-wing axiology, so to speak “neo-Marxist”, means primarily an attempt to eradicate the Christian tradition, Christian values, but also at the very end the fight against the Catholic Church, because the Catholic Church is also in a doomed position in this fight and must be destroyed, these are certainly not the European values that John Paul II had in mind” – he explained.
The political scientist pointed out that the currently proposed changes to the treaties introduce the dictate of left-wing values “and not only at the level of the treaty, but in education, in the member states, in the media, and therefore in public discourse and in relation to political groups.” “So we will have a situation of sanctioning not only states, but also citizens, but also churches, media – all groups that will not want to accept and affirm leftist values, i.e. the so-called European values” – he noted. “This is, of course, authoritarian activity, because it will systematically exclude Christian values from the possibility of appearing in the public sphere, in public discourse, in political elections, in education, and if someone does not comply with it, he will simply be sanctioned” – he added.
Prof. Grosse pointed out that the task of Polish women and men was to restore Christian values in Europe. “This was the greatest sense of Poland’s entry into the European Union from a Christian point of view. In other words, we were to join the EU not to benefit from European funds, not to develop economically, but to convert Western Europe in the right direction, otherwise it will die” – he said. “Spiritual death means political death and this was predicted by John Paul II” – he concluded.
AW