Permanent Council of the Polish Bishops' Conference: politics is a vocation to the love of neighbor

The bishops pointed out that "at its core, politics is a vocation to the love of neighbor, expressed in the service of truth, the right to life, family rights, human dignity, freedom, justice, and solidarity." They emphasized that the objective of electoral competition is to choose a government that enjoys the broadest possible support and can energetically serve all Poles, not to overpower, let alone destroy, political rivals."

Recalling the teaching of St. John Paul II, the members of the Permanent Council encouraged "all participants in the electoral competition for power to constantly cultivate a noble spirit of political service."

At the same time, the bishops asked the media and journalists to "courageously go beyond the temptation to build a simplistic, one-sided, ideologized and sometimes party-determined picture of social life." "The urgent matter at hand is to reject all forms of media stigmatization. This can sow fear and hostility in people's hearts, which may lead to real tragedies and misfortunes," they noted.

"Therefore, we appeal today especially to those who are responsible for the shape of the Polish media, so that journalists working there have the conditions to reliably inform society and build a culture of dialogue," the Position reads.

The bishops acknowledged that "the ministry of honest dialogue in a deeply divided society is also an urgent task today for all those who, due to their profession or social functions, enjoy public authority and trust."

Members of the Permanent Council also asked participants in the election campaign to refrain from instrumentalizing the Church. "We have publicly emphasized more than once that the Church is not on the side of the right, the left or the center, because the Church has its own side; the Church should stand on the side of the Gospel," they pointed out.

"We express our deepest conviction that the Gospel, preached daily in thousands of Polish parishes, still has the power to transform Polish consciences and +the face of this land+, thus remaining that moral and spiritual foundation without which democracy cannot stand," they wrote," wrote the bishops in the Position Statement. Finally, they encouraged people to participate in the elections in a spirit of responsibility for their homeland.

Press Office of the Polish Bishops' Conference

Translated by Sr. Amata Nowaszewska / Office for Foreign Communication of the Polish Bishops’ Conference