The Primate of Poland on the Solemnity of Our Lady of Czestochowa: Religious education at school protects against closure and isolation

https://episkopat.pl/doc/217100.Abp-Polak-w-uroczystosc-NMP-Czestochowskiej-Nadzieja-nie-jest

On the solemnity of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Holy Mass was presided over by Archbishop Wojciech Polak, Primate of Poland, on the Jasna Gora summit with the participation of the Polish Episcopate. The Eucharist was concelebrated by, among others, the President of the Polish Bishops‘ Conference, Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda SAC, Secretary General of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Marek Marczak, and the bishops who will take part in the Council of Diocesan Bishops of the Polish Bishops' Conference tomorrow.

In his homily, Archbishop Polak stressed the importance and value of religious education at school. “Thanks to religious education at school, through learning about God and shaping attitudes that flow from it, through its cultural and social character, we can open the hearts and minds of children and young people, giving them a chance to live with hope, which will overcome the dangerous temptation of closing in on oneself and isolation. A sense of insecurity and the introduction of changes that actually undermine, devalue and weaken this common educational effort can lead them to live the present in melancholy and boredom” – underlined Primate of Poland.

Archbishop Polak also noted that it is necessary in this regard “to preserve the right of parents to bring up their children in accordance with their own convictions, as well as the right of children and young people to upbringing and to care appropriate to their age and the development they have attained”. He also drew attention to the problem of combining different age groups within the framework of religious education at school, which “will undoubtedly cause among children and young people not only confusion in the assimilation of knowledge, but will generate in them unnecessary stress and frustration”.

The Primate of Poland referred in his homily to other situations where the perspective of hope is missing today: “It is missing in places engulfed by conflicts and ongoing war. It is missing in attempts, including legislative ones, to weaken and undermine respect for human life from conception to natural death. (...) It is also lacking towards those to whom we are driven by prejudice and closure. It is missing when we lose patience and the willingness to listen to each other, and thus our social divisions and disputes continue to deepen. That is why it is worth reminding ourselves – as Pope Francis said to us here at Jasna Gora – that our nation has overcome many difficult moments on its way in unity and that Mary wants to guard us together, all of us without exception”.

Archbishop Polak noted that through the encounter with Our Lady of Jasna Gora, we can understand “that hope is not a credulous optimism, but a gift of grace in the realism of life”.

“Praying together today in front of Jasna Gora image, we want to open also our hearts to this gift of God's grace, which we so much need in the reality of our lives” - Archbishop Polak stressed and added, referring to the words of Pope Francis in the Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025: “The storms that buffet us will never prevail, for we are firmly anchored in the hope born of grace, which enables us to live in Christ and to overcome sin, fear and death. This hope, which transcends life’s fleeting pleasures and the achievement of our immediate goals, makes us rise above our trials and difficulties, and inspires us to keep pressing forward, never losing sight of the grandeur of the heavenly goal to which we have been called".

At the end of his homily, Archbishop Polak pointed out that, as in Cana, Mary also today tells her Son about our shortcomings, standing before us as the Mother of hope. “She cares for us and goes with us, also in the midst of all those problems that seem to choke our hearts today. She goes with us to tell Jesus once again: they have no more wine” – stressed Primate of Poland and concluded: “May Our Lady, our Lady and Queen of Jasna Gora, come to our aid, support us and lead us to trust and to hold on to hope". 

Press Office of the Polish Bishops' Conference

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