Frederic Schneider

Erasmus Student

Student number 17515

Radio Maryja as an example of abuse of the authority of the catholic Church in Poland

Final paper for the seminar: religion in Europe and middle east culture

Lecturer: Mrs. Bielawska

SS 2006

Introduction: about religion in Poland3

1.1.An introduction about the present context concerning the link between Radio Maryja and politics 3

1.2. Religion in Poland yesterday and today3

1.3. The link between Church and politics5

The functioning of Radio Maryja 7

2.1. About the grounder, the grounding and the evolution of Radio Maryja7

2.2. About the listeners of Radio Maryja8

2.3. Organizations linked with Radio Maryja11

3. The ideology of Radio Maryja 12

3.1. The relation between religion and patriotism according to Radio Maryja12

3.2. the protection of Catholicism13

3.3. The protection of Poland14

3.3.1. The threat called “liberalism”14

3.3.2. Foreigners and national institutions15

4. Scandals linked with Radio Maryja17

4.1. About father Rydzyk’s economic activities17

4.2. About the political engagement 18

4.3. A martyr attacked by the Pope19

5. Conclusion20

6. Bibliography21

1. Introduction: about religion in Poland

1.1.An introduction about the present context concerning the link between Radio Maryja and politics

When the conservative party PiS and the liberal formation PO won the elections in Poland in 2005, it was clear for a lot of people that these two parties will govern the country together. Their victory was predicted for a long time by the media: the link wing party SLD had no chance to win these elections because of some serious scandals concerning the government and because the heads of the two right wing powers announced that they are ready to govern together. However, because of some misunderstandings, PiS and PO could not find a compromise and quarrels started. PiS decided to create a minority government with the parliamentarian support of two other political forces: the populist party Samoobrona and the ultra catholic movement LPR. Media were chocked by this decision and started to criticize hardly PiS. The only one hard ally of the new government in the media was the radical catholic and nationalist Radio Maryja and the other media linked with father Rydzyk. It`s why the reporters working for Tv Trwam, Radio Maryja and Nasz Dziennik (all of them are subordinated to father Rydzyk) were the only ones authorized to report the signing of the stabilization pact approved by PiS, Samoobrona and LPR. It became the medium the more privileged by the government in Poland: ministers explain their policies in the studios of Radio Maryja and Tv Trwam.

1.2. Religion in Poland yesterday and today

To understand what is going on now in Poland, you must know the importance of the catholic religion in the history of Poland. This religion was omnipresent in the history of this country since symbolic beginning of its existence. In fact, Poland was baptized in 966, which is considered as a first sign of its unity. With the priests and the Latin language, it initiated writing in Poland, what means that the first written traces of Poland date from its baptism. This act allowed also Poland to enter to the family of the Christian European countries and frustrated by the way the threat “Germany”. The Germanic Empire attacked very often the young and inexperienced Kingdom of Poland before its baptism using as a pretext the fact that Poland was pagan and that it wants to convert them.

Then, the catholic religion became a strong part of the polish culture. Paradoxically, it found its apogee during the XIXth century, when Poland was not an independent country. It’s during this period that polish patriotism developed, which was illustrated by two huge uprisings which failed in 1830 and 1868. Religion was hardly linked with patriotism: a good catholic was a patriot and a patriot was a good catholic. When the Polish state became independent in 1918, Catholicism was one of the factors of the polish identity (even if they were many orthodoxies and Jews, but these people belonged to the Ukrainian and Israeli minorities). During the Second World War, the situation was very similar: we can see some traces of this phenomenon in the fact that the patriotic songs which are symbolically linked with the fight against Nazis very often have a religious content. The religious dimension of the recent ceremony of the 62th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 (the first since the radical right wing is at power) is a supplementary example.

During communism, the Church protected “simple people” and opposition against communists. We can divide this protection in three categories: critic of state in sermons, meetings of the opposition in churches and pressure on the authorities to be less draconian.

Nowadays, the catholic Church still has a central position in Poland. 95% of Poles declare to be catholic. However, there is a certain contrast between this Catholicism and the Catholicism of the Poles before the beginning of the capitalist era in Poland. In fact, capitalism doesn`t only change the economic system, but also the mentality and the values. Consumerism took crucial dimensions in Poland: material goods have now a central importance. Religion and spirituality are now on a second plane. Moreover, only 45%[1] of Poles go to church every Sunday and the proportion of people who follow the indications of the episcopate how to vote is much smaller.

But to deny the importance of the catholic Church would be impossible. In schools for example, there are courses of religion and crosses in classes. National holidays are commemorated in the presence of representatives of the Church. Priests are an authority in ethic matters. The Church still has a huge influence on the majority of practicing Catholics.

1.3. The link between Church and politics

The Church wants to use its authority influencing politics. In 1989, this engagement in the public sphere looked legitimate because there were only two camps: the camp of the communists who govern Poland during 40 years as a totalitarian state and the camp of the united opposition which was for implementing democracy in Poland. But in 2005, the situation was totally different: the post communist from SLD changed diametrically their beliefs and the ex democratic camp was totally divided.

“W wyborach [w 1989 r.] Kościół zdecydowanie poparł stronę solidarnościowo-opozycyjną, udzielając jej wszechstronnego wsparcia.”[2]The first democratic elections after the Second World War were certainly those on which the clergy had the greater influence and legitimacy. The priesthood was a symbol of the fight with communism. It`s why the episcopate even had an influence on the selection of the candidate of the Solidarity list. Churches became places of meeting of the opposition. The engagement of the Church was generally accepted by the society because this election was perceived as a plebiscite for or against the atheistic Communists and the clergy was considered as the bigger opponent of this force. But people thought that it would be the last engagement of the priesthood in politics. Theoretically, after this the episcopate didn’t support any party and encouraged only to vote for parties which respect Christian values but we could see already the next year in 1990 with the presidential elections that this role didn’t give satisfaction to the clergy. The Church supported Wałęsa and certainly made his victory deeper.

The bishop Michalik said “katolik [powinien głosować] na katolika, żyd na żyda, komunista na komunistę”[3] during the campaign for the elections in 1991 which reveals the attitude of the episcopate towards politics: we will not influence you about your choice but don’t forget that you a Catholic and that you have catholic values and that you should vote for a candidate who has the same priorities. It means that the clergy wanted to create an artificial cleavage in politics between the Catholics and the atheists, hoping that the Catholics who represent the majority of the nation could always elect catholic authorities which would have policies with respect for Christian values. They created this cleavage in the presidential elections in 1995 but without this effect. The camp of the Catholics was supposed to be represented by Wałęsa in the second tour of these elections and the camp of the atheists by the former communist Kwaśniewski. Unfortunately for the Church Kwaśniewski won, which would mean that Poles became “pagans”. Then, the clergy encouraged to vote against the constitution in 1997 because “tekst konstytucji budził [według Kościoła] poważne zastrzeżenia moralne : (...) brak normy o obronie każdego życia, prawa rodziców do wychowania swoich dzieci, wartości będących fundamenem polskiej tożsamości i suwerenności”[4]. The cleavage between Catholics and atheists was repeated one more time the Church lost. We can deduce that the Catholic Church can’t “win the elections” alone (which means that it doesn’t have a decisive influence on more than the half of the population) but it has a certain importance in opinion-making.

Different tendencies wanted to (ab)use this weight for ideological reasons. Father Rydzyk is an excellent example of this. He started with the grounding of a small local catholic broadcasting station: Radio Maryja in 1991. Progressively, it gat a huge popularity and develop to a Radio which became audible in the whole country and even in many territories outside Poland. Seing this success, father Rydzyk started to enlarge the offer creating a TV channel (Tv Trwam), a newspaper (Nasz Dziennik) and even a college. Nevertheless, the importance of one of the biggest present political parties – LPR – is due to the support that Radio Maryja gave to it at the beginning of its existence. We can call this whole tendency radical because it doesn’t accept any compromise and because it is very conservative. It is nationalist and claims that the Polish soil should be protected towards the foreigners. According to them, everybody has to accept Christian values and respect it. It’s why the representatives of this tendency say that abortion is an infanticide. It is why, paradoxically, some accuse these people of having a behavior which reveals inclination more for detestation than for Christian love.

On the other hand, there is a more moderate tendency in catholic media which are engaged in politics. It is represented by Tygodnik Powszechny and Radio Józef. It claims that, in the name of Christian tolerance, non catholic beliefs and behaviors should not be condemned. However, the media subordinated to father Rydzyk say that there is only one truth and that this pseudo catholic media are manipulated by liberal forces.

What is the secret of the success of father Rydzyk? How do these media work? What are the controversies linked with them? What are the counter arguments used by them to defend against the attacks?

2. The functioning of Radio Maryja

2.1. About the grounder, the grounding and the evolution of Radio Maryja

Tadeusz Rydzyk was born in 1945. He has studied at the Higher Seminary of the Redemptorists in Tuchów. He became then a redemptorist. “W 1986 r. wyjechał do Niemiec i przez pół roku nie kontaktował się z władzami swojego zakonu, w związku z czym groziło mu suspendowanie.”[5]He took contact with the xenophobic Radio Maria International in Balderschwang, which had a huge influence on his future broadcasting station. Some say that he worked for it. The German catholic Church closed this radio because of its radicality. Father Rydzyk made a course about the political and economic “third way” in the Schiller’s institute at the end of the 80`s, which played a major role in the making of his beliefs. He came back to Poland in 1991 as another man, inspired by RMI and this course.

The redemptorist decided to ground a broadcasting station in Poland. Radio Maryja has been grounded on the 8th of December in 1991 in Toruń. At the beginning, it could be heard only 40 kilometers around the transmitter. One year after, the Ministry of Communication signed an agreement which allowed this to use a satellite. Progressively, the offer was enlarged to the whole territory of Poland and began to be broadcasted in other countries through satellites.[6]

Let’s analyze now the content of the broadcasts emited by Radio Maryja. Prayers and masses have a central place in Radio Maryja. There are three rosary per day (at 6:30, 12:30, 20:20) and at least one mass per day. “Mogę,chcę pomóc” is a broadcast during which people offer objects that they don’t need anymore for free. They leave their phone number and interested people call them to take the object. It is a broadcast which encourages charity. There are also educative programs for children which tell how to be a good young catholic and incite to pray (something which is not very popular for children). There are also broadcasts in which explanations of religious texts are made and the lives of holy people told. An example of this is “Meeting with the bible” which can be listened to everyday.[7] This kind of programs represents about 80-90% of the broadcasts. So, we can see that the majority of them has a real catholic message and that they develop the Christian spirit.

2.2. About the listeners of Radio Maryja

It is interesting to see who listens to Radio Maryja. Different sources give different data but the general tendencies are the same: listeners of Radio Maryja are old and not well-educated and women represent a large majority of them. According to a study of OBOP made in 1999, 46% of the listeners of Radio Maryja are above 50 years old and only 26% are between 9 and 29.[8] According to a study of SMG/KRC made in 1997, 49% of the listeners are over 60 and only 5% between 15 and 24.[9] Accorind to Wikipedia, “Tylko 1% z nich to osoby młode, 70% – większość stanowią osoby powyżej 60 roku życia (dane z 2002 r.)”[10], which is not very precise and the source is not mentioned (so, the credibility of this source is questionable), but it shows that some sources speak of a very radical lack of equilibrium. According to the first source, 33% only have an elementary education and 6% a university formation. According to the second, 45% an elementary one and 7% a university one. This last one also specifies that women represent 70% of the people who listen to Radio Maryja. So, we can make an image of the typical listener of Radio Maryja. That are very often people who began there education at the beginning of the communist era. They didn’t have the chance to go to school very long and were obliged to start to work being teenagers. You can notice it when they call the studio: they have problems with expressing themselves, they say almost always: “Am I already online?” and then “ So, wait, I have to switch off my radio”. They show that they are very emotional during the discussion. The data about the number of the listeners varies between 500 000 and 4 000 000, Radio Maryja is considered as the 4th or the 5th broadcasting station (the first religous one).

The critics of the radio think that the fact that the listeners are old and not well-educated makes them weaker and that they can be manipulated easier. The majority of the programs are objective and speak about religion, which makes that people trusts this broadcasting station. They trust it also when it speaks about politics. They have very often irrational fears because of their personal tragedies: they lived during the Nazis occupation and under the communist era. The two big neighbors of Poland attacked it and treated the country very hard. They just hear what they want to hear listening to the xenophobic Radio Maryja: that foreigners are still a threat for Poland. Very often, these old listeners of Radio Maryja see the sense of their life only in religion. It is why, they want to live in accordance with religion and think that it is analogical with living and thinking in accordance with what Radio Maryja says. Sometimes, that are people who have problems with moving (handicap etc.), it is why Radio Maryja is the unique contact they can have with religion. It is why they listen to Radio Maryja about 10 hours per day.[11]

But the defenders of Radio Maryja have some arguments to explain why the listeners of this station have these characteristics and claim that they are not manipulated. One of them sees three reasons which are at the origin of the fact that young people don`t listen to Radio Maryja: “młodzież jest niewątpliwie podatniejsza na lewicowe slogany o postępie i nowoczesności, (…) łatwiej ulega (…) sugestii, jakoby tradycyjne formy modlitwy były (…) przestarzałe, (...) Ojcowie Redemptoryści odrzucają (...) styl podlizywania się słuchaczom”[12]. Those three arguments are right: it is true that young people are in a period of individual development during which they reject all the authorities among other things the powerful state and religion. They look also for attractive things. It means that they are interested in the status of the state proposed by the left wing: a liberal vision in which the state doesn’t interfere into the private sphere which allows them to live without constraints (they can take soft drugs, drink alcohol without limits etc.). They reject the authority of the Church. They think that praying is boring and that there is nothing attractive about that. However, we can argue that Radio Józef has proportionally more young listeners than Radio Maryja. Radio Maryja says also that those not numerous young people who listen to it are almost holy. It argues that they are conscious of the dangers of the world and that they will embody the elite.