A Wrocław Triptych
Told in its own words and images. Transcribed, framed and presented to the public.
I
The Left Panel
In the middle, our kinsman Piotr, hunting down Jews. In the background, the Wrocław city council and a life-sized puppet with sidelocks, its mouth stretched in a grimace, a symbol of the Jews’ dominion over the earth and their responsibility for all that is evil. The fires of hell all around. This part of the triptych depicts a soul in search of the truth precariously balanced on uncertain ground.
He comes from a small village. Some snidely contend that he is a man with no past. But that’s not true. He’s the son of a Polish farmer, he attended some school or another in Łódź and worked in a Silesian coalmine. Then he emigrated to Greece. He lived by the sweat of his brow, making money to feed the family. Two flags hung on his house, one foreign and one Polish. He never made any demands on the foreign nation, he just accepted its culture and its rules.
[Committed to both Poland and his second homeland, he was an exemplary laboring migrant.]
Then he went back to his country. He claims to have spoken his mind to his betters, by whom he means, specifically, Rafał Dutkiewicz, the Mayor of Wrocław, and Ewa Kopacz, a former Prime Minister. He lost two million zloty invested in the construction of the football stadium in Wrocław, on top of which he paid over half a million zloty in taxes to the revenue service for invoices that were never paid. That’s how he became one of the Outraged – a right-wing political movement started by Paweł Kukiz, a former Polish rock star. He was outraged to see his Polish Fatherland being sold off to traitors.
[Unfortunately, he quickly fell out of favor with the Outraged, who claimed he had a difficult character and was intellectually immature.]
He also helped organize Kukiz’s presidential campaign, but immediately went on to publicly criticize his political movement. He insisted that the musician was being manipulated by political cliques, and that Kukiz should cut all ties to the government as soon as possible. Ironically, Kukiz had originally entered politics as a rebellious “outsider” who promised to fight the establishment and who was for a short time a favorite among young voters.
Piotr was never known for any public activity prior to losing money on the stadium project. As a result, however, Piotr experienced an epiphany and started publicly spreading the truth that it was Jews who were responsible for all the evil in the world.
[Anti-Semite? God forbid that anyone should consider him an anti-Semite.]
He won’t reveal his age. They say that he refused to give his date of birth when he recently learned that the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) was going to investigate his background. Nobody knows how much truth there is in all of this, but since he is no longer liked by the right wing parties, it would be natural for the same parties to start disclosing his alleged past in the communist secret service, a past that can never be verified for lack of evidence.
His parents used to warn him not to touch shit because it always leaves a smell. But he didn’t listen and he went down in history as the man who burned a Jewish effigy on the Old Town Market in Wrocław on the November 18, 2015.
He does admit to having burned something, but he claims it was definitely not a Jew. He claims it was the effigy of George Soros, an American financier of Jewish descent responsible for destroying Christianity and Catholicism in Europe and in Poland.
[This was meant to be his – rather useless – line of defense in court.]
It doesn’t really matter whether Soros does or does not wear a hat, sidelocks, and a beard. He is of Jewish descent, he is a financier, and people tend to associate Jews with sidelocks and hats. It doesn’t matter that not every Jew has sidelocks.
The Polish media got it all wrong: it was meant to have been a protest against Soros, who can’t be allowed to get away with destroying Europe. And Soros is not the only one mocking the whole world and the Polish Nation and getting away with it.
[He claims there are more just like him.]
Maybe he did burn that effigy but why does that necessarily make him an anti-Semite? Some of his best friends are Jewish. But he cannot allow the European Union to impose foreign laws on his Fatherland. Poland is his Fatherland and he has nothing against the Jews, he’s not against any nation at all, but he strongly feels that native Poles should have the right to establish their own laws in their own country. He refuses to accept that anyone who says “Jew” is instantly labeled an anti-Semite but it’s okay to call someone a “Pole.”
[Clearly, it shouldn’t be okay to be able to say “Pole.”]
If the Polish Nation is to be sovereign in its own land, it must be the Polish Nation that decides whether it wants to let Islamists in or not.
[But who cares, anyway?]
Why should it matter who actually made the Jewish effigy? What matters is that there were supposed to be more effigies in the Old Town Market that night. There were supposed to be effigies of the leaders of the European Union, but only one was burned due to weather conditions, although he would like to make it clear that all the effigies looked the same.
[Did they all look like Jews?]
He was not protesting against the Jewish nation, he was protesting against one single individual who is working against the entire world. After all, we all know very well that it is Soros who is sponsoring the islamization of Europe and of the whole world. Let’s not kid ourselves.
[We definitely cannot fool him. As it turned out later, the court also could not be fooled.]
And if we think that it was an effigy of a Jew he burned, then that’s our problem and our problem alone, it’s a problem of the difficult-to-define Jewish nation, the nation that one becomes a part of even if you wear a yarmulka just once. Therefore, each and every one of you could be (or already is) part of the Jewish nation. And it is we, the chosen people, who think that we have all the rights and the right to insult the Polish Nation and all the nations of the world.
[We think that the Polish Nation has no rights. But he enlightens us and shows us that we are wrong.]
We think we are the chosen people, but we are, excuse his language, the shat-on people.
After all, he is in his own Fatherland and he can say whatever he wants, this is how his understanding of the law and of the Fatherland works. The Jews, on the other hand, have a duty [for the past thousand years] to remember that they are guests [for the past thousand years in thousand-year-old Poland] and they have to accept (respect, etc.) Polish laws. He doesn’t mean that Jews must leave here [1000-year-old Poland], all he wants is respect for Poland and for Poles.
[And one more tiny request, he would also like them to stop being the source of all evil in the world.]
It would be unreasonable to think that he would be upset if someone burned an effigy of a True Pole in revenge. The chances that a True Pole would be chosen, rather than a traitor (or a guest) of his Fatherland, are very slim. He wouldn’t be sorry to see Lech Wałęsa go up in flames because he cannot tolerate scoundrels or traitors. While waiting in a court corridor after one of the trials, he begins a long tirade against Wałęsa.
[A tirade about the former president in the corridor of a Polish court, in the presence of police officers and a judge, who happened to be passing by…]
His eyes gleam with joy at the very mention of Wałęsa. He says that perhaps he will burn an effigy of Wałęsa during his next demonstration, forcing the great hero into retirement. His deep faith in the transformative power of fire would be noteworthy if it weren’t that what he really wants is to popularize effigy-burning to the point where anyone could be the victim, even President Wałęsa, and this way turning into ashes would not mean turning anyone over to the courts.
[And he fears courts like fire.]
He has nothing against the Jewish nation, but he would like to ask the Jewish nation to be more sensible, so we can all cooperate on Polish soil, for the good of Poland and Poles. He is asking for more sensibility from Soros on the one hand, and Jews on the other, as it was the Jews who stoked up the situation after the effigy was burned. They could have just called him and he would have explained what the whole thing was about.
[But nobody (apart from the police) ever called him.]
He’s surprised that the media immediately turned the innocent burning of the Soros puppet into something totally different. It was just one aspect of the fight for Christianity and for the Poles in Poland. Nothing more.
[That it was a fight, nobody doubts.]
Nobody, not the police, not the security guards, could have imagined that the leftist media would unleash all hell against him and against the lawful nationalist organizations. That was never the goal. The organizer of the nationalist march confirmed in court that he didn’t hear anything, he didn’t see anything, and that he had no idea he had even been in Piotr’s flat. Mainly because he’s quite short.
But he’s no fool. He got up and asked the march organizer why he was lying. The defense lawyer said there could be no comments but questions are allowed, so he’s asking.
He was told that this is not how questions are posed in court.
But it didn’t turn out that bad. In the end, he (supposedly) brought Soros to the attention of the Polish government, and prompted a discussion about Islam in Poland.
[He also accidentally brought Poland to the astonished attention of the entire world.]
If he had only had the chance, he would have burned four or five effigies. But that day was really windy and rainy so he only got to burn one effigy.
[We all remember it was cold and windy.]
It’s not about whether Jews are good or bad.
[A Jew is a Jew.]
But we must remember that, just like with any other group, there are both good and bad Jews. And the good Jews should remind the bad Jews that they should not do bad things. If some Jewish professor is insulting Poles because they shot his dog, and he does not apologize, then other Jews should apologize for him. No Jews apologized, but one burned puppet set off an entire war. He didn’t sue himself, after all. We sued him. Everybody is looking at everyone else: so who sued him? A metaphysical “you” (or “us”) – Jews, a term that in Poland is all too loaded.
[It was enough that the Mayor of Wrocław entered a synagogue wearing a yarmulka to make him a member of the chosen people. And that was why Jews asked goys not to wear yarmulkas during cultural events in the synagogue. If they did, the Jews would not be able to keep track of their own people.]
Meanwhile he has other responsibilities, he has a family, a company, employees.
[He doesn’t like the idea of prison.]
If he was to burn something again, he would be more careful. He would write GEORGE SOROS on the puppet’s back or on its forehead, and nothing else. No sidelocks, no hats, no traditional cloaks. Nothing that could be associated with Jews. But he wants everyone to remember once and for all: it was raining that day and even if he had put a face on face of the effigy, it would have been wiped off. There was no way to make it work. But a Jew-shaped puppet worked. Even without a face. That’s it. Period.
[It’s a bit late for speculation.]
He was accused of spreading racial hatred. But he had to, for his Fatherland… [his voice begins to break] …in the past, our countrymen died, their blood was spilled… our fathers fought on the barricades, so did our grandfathers… [he pulls himself together]. If it is necessary to go to prison in the fight for Poland, he will go with his head held high. And he will be back.
[Is it worth doing time for a puppet?]
Let the Mayor of Wrocław answer that question, together with the Jewish community and all the Jews who are trying to throw him in prison. Just because he had the courage to fight for Poland.
[He tends to mention every once in awhile that the Jews are the source of all evil in his country, but he doesn’t let it slip in court or in our conversation.]
A young nationalist makes an announcement on an online patriotic television channel. He says that if Piotr is sent to prison for his faith, then it’s all over for Poland.
He was sentenced a year after the effigy of a Jew was burned. Even the prosecutor seemed surprised. Not ten months of community service, as the prosecutor had requested, but ten months in prison for Piotr the Puppet Man. However, the sentence could be appealed.
[So there is no more Poland, and hence no more Poles.]
The nationalists walked out of the courtroom in protest. But only after the judge requested that the police escort them out.
Before they left, they asked the judge how much George Soros had paid him for the verdict.
The judge did not respond.
The judge was not convinced that the puppet had been an effigy of Soros. He did not understand that Piotr’s actions were intended to defend his Fatherland. After all, as Piotr commented upon exiting the courtroom, the verdict was the result of the fact that Jews rule Poland.
[He will appeal the sentence because he never used hate speech against Jews.]
Outside the courtroom, Piotr readily explains to the cameras that all the highest positions in the country have been occupied by Jews ever since Poland regained independence in 1989. And look what they’ve done to the country. The court sentence is shameful, the equivalent of spitting in the face of the Polish Nation. If the Jewish nation is so afraid, it can go back to Israel.
One of Piotr’s companions runs after the judge, shouting: down with the Judeo-Masons!
[Now one can only hope that a higher court will not be Jewish and financed by Soros so it can pass a verdict without spitting in the face of the Polish Nation.]
II
The Central Panel: the National Altar of the Fatherland
In the middle, Father Jacek, Apostle to the Slavs, is reciting a prayer along with a crowd gathered in front of the national stadium in Warsaw: Under Thy protection we seek refuge, Holy Mother of God. He asserts his priestly power and the unshakable faith of the Polish youth. Flares are burning in the background, smoke billowing. The army is getting ready for battle. This part of the triptych shows a primitive Jewish mob.
[The backstory began on Poland’s Independence Day, November 11, 2016, when Father Jacek, having officially left his order, expounded his opinions for the cameras during a “Patriots’ March” in Wrocław.]
The filthy left-wingers would prefer if the nationalists didn’t exist at all. They are an insult not only to those who gathered in the Market Square, but also to their ideological ancestors who fought the communist scum. Now these same filthy left-wingers are pretending to be Poland’s saviors, under the disguise of the Committee for the Defense of Democracy (KOD), a recently founded anti-PiS movement.
Better dead than red! God! Honor! Fatherland!
[Now it becomes clear what it is that the Fighting Church is gearing up for. This is a battle cry that Father Jacek has invoked many times before.]
Dear Compatriots! Poland must be decommunized! Poland must bring the traitors to justice, the traitors who keep feeding us nihilism and anti-values! We must be strong of spirit! There is only way to defeat the filthy leftists, Jews and communism still running rampant in our Fatherland. There is only one way to win the battle of good against evil. We have the courage, the strength and the power given to us by Jesus Christ, the only true savior of the world!
God, Honor, Fatherland!
[The question is, where is the Mayor of Wrocław during all of this?]
If he considers himself Polish, he should be here with them, thanking God and celebrating independence! He’s not there, but he did join the Jewish March of Mutual Respect two days earlier, organized on the anniversary of Kristallnacht! From one synagogue to another!
[Is he really Polish?]
What kind of respect do they mean? Respect for Jews, for the talmudists? Dear Compatriots, is it really a coincidence that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is a Jew and that he keeps deleting patriotic, Catholic and nationalist profiles?
[Zuckerberg’s parents are Jews, so it’s no coincidence that he is a Jew.]
What kind of respect is it when Rafał Dutkiewicz, the Mayor of Wroclaw, walks in a Jewish march and rambles on about delegalizing nationalist organizations inspired by the great heroes to whom we owe Poland’s independence in 1918!?
[Father Jacek demands respect for those fighting the good fight. He assures all those gathered before him that they can be proud of themselves for having gathered together before him.]
We have reasons to be proud: we gathered together in the name of God, Honor, and Fatherland. In the name of values which Tel Aviv can never silence, despite all its efforts. And, my dear Compatriots, it is not a coincidence that we are standing here, right next to the factory of lies [the Gazeta Wyborcza building] controlled by the Ukrainian Jew Aron Szechter, also known as Adam Michnik [its editor-in-chief]. Toss his lies into the trash, where they belong.
[Piotr the Puppet Man is standing next to Father Jacek and he cannot contain his joy. He’s screaming, shrieking, he is frantically passing the microphone back and forth. Euphoria. He’s anything but an anti-Semite.]
Our presence here is a reason for pride, but it’s also another nail in the coffin of the talmudist occupants of Poland. We don’t want any racist Talmud, we don’t want those xenophobic teachings that call us, Poles and Catholics, beasts, animals and vermin. We don’t want these xenophobic teachings, we want Jesus to reign as the King of Poland. We want a great, Catholic Poland, built on the firm foundations of Christ and uncomfortable truths. We want a great and Catholic Poland without the hatred of the Talmud. A Great Catholic Poland!
[Many people will probably not hear any hate speech here either.]
And I trust you all can see that Poland is trapped, that Poland’s sovereignty is being destroyed by the occupants from Brussels, by the European Union. And it’s obviously no coincidence that the European Union has been influenced by the Marxist teachings of Rosa Luxemburg, also a talmudic Jew. Doesn’t it make you wonder? Aren’t you wondering why Poland is being destroyed by talmudists time after time? Destroyed by those who think we are vermin. Doesn’t it make you wonder? It’s high time to expel that filthy occupant from Brussels!
[Who is Father Jacek?]
He is a man of great faith and great hope, full of love for his neighbor, insists a patriotic young man in a right-wing program aired on Polish TV. It’s September 2016, a few days after Father Jacek left his order. The host of the program would like to show how his parishioners have nonetheless strengthened their ties with the Church [the ties he broke by leaving the order]. Thanks to their spiritual transformation, they are once again receiving the sacraments and attending Mass. In the past they had kept the Church at a distance, they stopped going to confirmation or communion. Now, thanks to Father Jacek, who didn’t condemn them for not receiving the sacraments, they learned to love God and the Church again.
[They also quickly and conveniently recalled the meaning of the cry “God, Honor, Fatherland!”]
And then he left.
[Why the program host did not question the fact that these young people, so filled with the love of “God, Honor, Fatherland!” are capable of following it with “Better dead than red?” Perhaps because he doesn’t see anything wrong with it.]
One of the young men testified that he had been doing a lot of bad things for a long time. Thanks to Father Jacek, he opened up to God and to the Church. He goes to confession regularly, he attends Mass regularly, he goes to communion regularly. And it’s thanks to him, really, that he keeps trying to be a better man, a better Catholic.
[Then he publishes a video on his Facebook wall, in which “a crazy woman is drowning tiny kittens in a river,” commenting that this is exactly the type of person extermination was invented for. Together with his friends he concludes that someone should kill the fucking bitch straight away, and it’s a pity the video doesn’t provide her home address.]
These testimonies of patriotic conversions from young people are just a fragment of a greater legacy left behind by Father Jacek, the host sums up.
[Better dead than red.]
Just a couple of months earlier, after Father Jacek had been sent away from Wrocław, the very same program hosted the spokesman of the Bishop of Wrocław along with the editor of a right-wing weekly magazine, who both agreed that Father Jacek had never refuted Christian doctrine in his speeches, and that’s why he didn’t lose his right to preach the Word of God. He has the right to use any rhetoric he likes. Father Jacek is, as it was nicely put, immersed in Catholic orthodoxy, and that’s why his only punishment was relocation [to help him calm down]. He was also subsequently banned from speaking with the media, but chose to ignore that.
[But nobody banished him from the Church. He chose to leave his order because he couldn’t stand the silence imposed on him.]
The editor of the right-wing magazine added with a smile that actually many of the things Father Jacek had to say about the role of the Nation were exceptionally mild considering the role the Nation has in the great scheme of God’s Providence. Of course, different priests use different styles of rhetoric, but fortunately this doesn’t mean that the personal rhetoric of an individual Bishop, Archbishop or Pope is on par with the teachings of the Church.
[Therefore it’s Father Jacek’s rhetoric that sets him apart from other priests, not what he actually says.]
“Like Pope Francis, he wants to go to the extreme ends of faith. He became a shepherd for young patriots. They need his priesthood to find salvation,” reports “Gość Niedzielny,” (The Sunday Guest) a popular right-wing Catholic magazine.
[What would Pope Francis say to that?]
During the celebration of the 82nd anniversary of the National Radical Camp in Białystok Cathedral (in April 2016, after leaving Wrocław but before leaving the order), Father Jacek recalled the Biblical story of the Jews’ exodus from Egyptian slavery to freedom. At first glance it may seem that Egyptians, the oppressors, were the Jews’ worst enemies. In fact, the Jews were their own worst enemy with their cowardice, compliance and unthinking acceptance of the status quo.
[A bunch of sheep.]
Father Jacek’s discourse is infused with Catholic orthodoxy; Jews serve as an example of how much harm can people bring upon themselves if they remain passive and reluctant to change. However, he glibly transitions from interpreting Biblical texts to contemporary parallels. The oppressors and Jewish mob will try to bring you to your knees, drag you through the mud, grind you down, swallow, digest, and then spit you out again, because you are an inconvenience, because you believe in Christ. He forges ahead: we are living in Egypt and our oppressors are the supporters of Rosa Luxemburg. Anyone with half a brain will get his point.
[Anyone with half a brain knows that the evangelical “mob” is a recurring trope used by Father Jacek to signify Jews. Anyone with any brains knows that Rosa’s supporters are obviously Jews.]
Jews are the source of danger and evil, not just in Egypt, but in general. Rosa Luxemburg’s supporters are Jews who create and/or are responsible for controlling the European Union which has entrapped the Polish Nation. In one of his interviews, Father Jacek claimed that the Polish Jew Rosa Luxemburg opposed Poland regaining its independence, and that she slandered nationalist intellectuals who strove to achieve it, calling them rebels and fascists.
[He would like to emphasize that he is not anti-Semite.]
If there’s anything he doesn’t like about Jewish imperialism, it’s the desire to destroy the Polish Nation, which Rosa Luxemburg intended to bring about by denationalizing and dechristianizing Europe.
This was actually communist imperialism, but we also had to deal with subversive Jewish organization during the inter-war period.
[And it isn’t any better today.]
George Soros is just one of those who want to implement Rosa Luxemburg’s great scheme, along with other inter-war Jewish organizations, to de-polonize Poland. They wanted, my dear Brothers and Sisters, to destroy the Polish Nation.
[We should not ignore the phrase “one of” used by Father Jacek, by which he means there are other Jews out there. He doesn’t use any names so no-one knows where they are hiding, preparing to attack.]
Father Jacek agrees that Jews also sometimes helped to save Poland and Polish identity through the ages, and he speaks of these instances with all due respect. For example (sic!), they harm the Polish Nation by repeating their claims that the pogrom in Jedwabne was committed by Poles.
[Without sounding too mean: some Jews may have done something good for Poland, and the best example of this is how Jews are defaming Poles for the murders in Jedwabne.]
He keeps repeating from the pulpit: we cannot hate others, the main responsibility of patriotic Catholics is to defy evil.
[The only problem is that he equates evil with Jews.]
Times change, Rosa turns into George [but some values remain the same: Jewishness is the enemy, Jewishness is evil]. So banal.
[Our Lord Jesus Christ said that the devil is the Jews’ father (J 8, 44). The Good News of St. John, in which Jesus Christ’s beloved apostle describes his countrymen as “Jews” a few dozen times in a negative context, does its damage].
Does Father Jacek really have to tell us time and again that the Marxist European Union is an aggressive mechanism out to destroy God, the Church and human dignity? This point was already clearly made by Rosa Luxemburg [the Jewish destroyer of humanity, and therefore of Jews themselves].
He insists that they got on his back for his sermon in Białystok Cathedral because of Article 256, which refers to that mythical beast, hate speech. Even prosecutors agree that this article exists only to eliminate politically incorrect opponents.
[So what we have is a case of persecution because of a sermon, disqualification on the strength of some legal myths.]
This, Father Jacek warns, is a case without precedent and he is worried this is just the beginning of some dark political game. We are disturbed by his connections with the National Radical Camp, and yet the ideological declarations of the National Radical Camp are compatible with that of the Roman Catholic Church.
According to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok, Father Jacek’s sermons did not incite to hatred. It was decided that he was referring to historical and biblical texts and that he gave examples of bad behavior on the part of the Jewish community from the times of slavery in Egypt.
This is even more surprising considered that, according to Father Jacek’s version, the prosecutor was investigating a number of issues, including the sermon. Jacek doesn’t know what does the “number of issues” refers to; perhaps it means the other speeches he made in Wrocław or during the “Independence March” in Warsaw. [And he may be right.]
[Apparently the prosecutor was able to infer a coherent message about loving one’s Jewish neighbor from all of this.]
He was worried that speaking of a Great and Catholic Poland might be perceived as hate speech. He couldn’t believe that he could be taken to court for delivering a sermon during Mass.
[Such are the times we have to live in, Ladies and Gentlemen.]
According to Father Jacek, after his sermon in Białystok – a city known for its nationalist tendencies – there was a lot of pressure on the Apostolic Nuncio Celestino Migliore and on the head of the Polish Episcopate Stanisław Gądecki from Rotary International, various Jewish communities in Poland, and left-wing journalists to sanction him.
[Needless to say, when such a shady bunch got together, the sanctions were imposed straightaway.]
When he was leaving Wrocław, Father Jacek thanked his superiors who had done all they could to keep him in the parish [but had no chance of success due to the world-wide conspiracy]. The pastor of the Wrocław parish said in his goodbye that the Congregation of Missionaries order was very happy to have had such a priest in its ranks and that he will be missed in Wrocław. That he was doing “a great deal of much good.”
[The pastor from Oporów, a neighborhood in Wrocław, can see a great deal of much good indeed.]
If we listen to the so-called official statements from the Pope and high-ranking Church officials, complained the editor of a right-wing newspaper on a right-wing TV show, we can see that they are so full of calls for dialogue and for “let’s love each other” and “all together” that the message of Father Jacek’s sermons disappears completely.
[Perhaps because it was never there in the first place?]
In the meantime, the editor of the right-wing newspaper continues, there is a certain fear being expressed in private conversations about, how shall we say, the growing number of Muslims coming to Europe. Unfortunately, this worry is rarely expressed in public because priests are officially being forced to repeat the old adages about loving each other and opening up to each other instead of dealing with new challenges and problems.
Even the spokesman of the Bishop of Wrocław seemed surprised by this statement. He subtly pointed out that any complaints about love and openness to others should be directed to Jesus, and not to Pope Francis and his “correct” rhetoric.
The editor doesn’t entirely agree. The program host also protests. Jesus wasn’t always proper and correct, he did condemn the Pharisees, after all.
[He wasn’t all about love and openness.]
Could an all-forgiving God react to evil with evil? [The question is posed by Father Jacek during his farewell Mass on national TV. The host of the right-wing program is also present and kneeling in the church.]
It would be easier to just grind the primitive mob to dust, get the bonfire going and throw everyone on it.
[One would think that there could be other simple and reasonable solutions, other than burning people alive, to help his favorite “primitive mob” process the answer thoroughly, once and for all.]
Father Jacek insists that the battle of the Fighting Church is not about punishment, it’s all about limitless love for our fellow humans regardless of their nationality, religion, opinions or race. But at the same time, it is necessary to mercilessly repel all criminal ideologies, lies and evil out there in the world. We must throw them all out into the dustbins of history.
[The image of the Fighting Church is one of Father Jacek’s favorites. This fiery passage is followed by his homiletic climax, so to speak, after which he cannot help but pose the question. ]
Is not the greatest crime the left-wing neo-Marxist ideology that attacks life and freedom of speech? Is it not modernism that is consuming the Church and rejecting God? Is Islamic fundamentalism not a crime bent on the total destruction of Latin civilization? The destruction of our national identity and our uncompromising faith in Jesus Christ our only savior?
[It’s not about answering any of the questions. The real goal is to take all the neo-Marxists (whoever they may be), all the modernists (whoever they may be), all the Islamic fundamentalists (who came here to destroy our civilization but are in fact nowhere to be found), and – according to Father Jacek’s way of thinking – throw them out into the dustbins of history.]
At first it’s a beautiful speech about love and compassion, a biblical love story, just like it was in the Białystok Cathedral. Then it shifts to a clarion call to the instincts (burning the “mob”), and by the end the narrative is about throwing a large part of humanity into the dustbins of history.
Just hypothetically: Annie, Jennie and Joannie leave the church in Wrocław and they have no idea what to do with all those people with strange names. Why would we bring Islamic fundamentalists to Poland only in order to throw them into the “dustbins of history,” as advised by Father Jacek? And who knows how to build a dustbin that’s big enough?
To be perfectly honest, the “dustbins of history” are without significance, and Father Jacek made a promise a long time ago that he will not allow his stance to be reduced to hatred towards others. That’s why the doors of the Congregation of Missionaries remain open for him until he goes too far and makes decisions that force those doors to close.
[He can still come back to the order, the door is not closed yet.]
After the patriotic march that took place in Wrocław in November, a number of people filed complaints to the prosecution regarding a crime committed by Father Jacek. The crime was that of inciting hatred based on nationality, ethnicity and race, as well as public defamation of people due to their nationality, ethnicity, race and religion.
[During his sermon in Białystok he mentioned, cryptically, that “anyone with half a brain will understand,” and oddly enough not everyone understood. Now, however, he has no more arguments in his own defense against the claim that he is not calling for hatred against Jews. Piotr the Puppet Man also lost all his arguments, since he popularizes, applauds and fully supports Father Jacek’s words. One wonders if the appeals court will take this into account?]
III
The Right Panel
Beautiful Justyna is standing on a yellow van owned by Piotr the Puppet Man. The van also serves as a stage for speakers during numerous patriotic marches in Wrocław. Justyna’s face is covered with a flag, she’s holding a stack of empty white sheets of paper in her hands. She believes it is Archangel Michael himself leading her on the barricades. In the last scene of the triptych, the artist wanted to avoid too much eschatology.
[First, a word about something that is not printed on the white sheets, but should be.]
Art. 256. § 1. Whoever publicly (…) incites hatred based on national, ethnic, race or religious differences or for reason of lack of any religious denomination shall be subject to a fine, or a penalty of restriction of liberty or a penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 2 years.
Art. 257. Whoever publicly insults a group of people or an individual person due to their national, ethnic, racial or religious affiliation or because of their lack of any religious denomination or for these same reasons breaches the personal inviolability of another individual shall be subject to a penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years.
[Criminal Code. Offences against public order.]
The nationalists are marching, their voices sound strong and clear: “All Poland sings with us, we don’t want no f**king refugees,” and “All Poland shouts with us, we don’t want no Islamic savages.” They carry banners, sometimes so big they need several men to carry them. “You will hang for betraying your nation, we will hang your old whore’s ass.” [Three of the letters are painted in bold and together they make up the name EWA. Not like Hawwah from Eden, but like Ewa Kopacz, the former Prime Minister from the Civic Platform opposition party.] The banner is signed by the National Radical Camp Wrocław. Piotr’s yellow van is there in the crowd, carrying a large cross with a figure of Jesus Christ on its bonnet. A crucified Jesus. Somewhere in the background you can see a banner that says “Death to the enemies of our Fatherland”.
Justyna comes out and confirms that we all understand what Islam and Islamism is. That it is more than just a religion. It’s an ideology. A geopolitical system. And if we don’t do as Allah demands, the jihadists will cut our heads off.
They will behead everyone who, like Justyna, accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They will destroy European culture and there will be no peace until all our heads drop to the ground.
One of the Islamists’ main pastimes is rape, insists Justyna. For example, in Norway 90% of all rape is committed by Islamists. Someone in the backstage corrects her, saying it’s 100%. So she says it’s probably 100%.
[Islamists-jihadists, or perhaps refugees-terrorists. Doesn’t really matter what we call them.]
Justyna keeps talking and the crowd starts a united chant of fucking.
Fuck Islam. Fuck them. Fuck the whores [EU]. Fuck Ewa Kopacz. [Fuck most everything.]
Justyna assures us that they will not allow the Islamist scum to harm our people.
[She will not let the scum rape and behead our people.]
We are part of the Fighting Church that is rallying for a free Latin Europe. We will not allow our culture and our identity to be destroyed. We will defend Poland!
[The battling Church remains silent.]
Justyna’s friend exhorts everyone to don their armor of readiness for the upcoming fight with Muslims.
[He doesn’t mean a spiritual armor, though he is not handing out any real armor either.]
Father Jacek comes to the stage and begins by saying that many of the people present here will hear that they are fascists. He also often hears that he is a fascist priest. They will hear that they are Nazis and that they don’t care about Christian values. Let them talk! The only thing that matters is that they have the Gospel in their hearts, they have Jesus Christ in their hearts!
[This was Father Jacek’s official premiere. Later he would preach at many other demonstrations as the self-anointed chaplain of the National Radical Camp.]
However, his greatest skill is the ability to inventively connect Biblical stories with modern reality. The evangelical fight of Jesus Christ goes hand in hand with the war against the red scum.
[A spiritual hammer slams down from one side and an iron sickle from the other. It’s no coincidence that “red scum” is such a capacious and vague term.]
And when he was removed from his post in Wrocław, Justyna felt it was her duty to defend the Church and the Truth. And to defend Father Jacek, whose trouble started when he stood in the Market Square among people like herself, innocent people who live their ordinary lives according to one simple rule: God, Honor, Fatherland. Father Jacek’s courage stirred up enough anger to power a vast machine of hatred, she explained during the farewell Mass. It was meant to break the priest. The left-wing media used all the manipulation techniques it knew in order to force the Church to silence Father Jacek.
[How is that even possible, how could he have been silenced?]
Justyna continues in a reverent voice. Father Jacek brought tens of thousands of people at patriotic demonstrations together in prayer. Thanks to him, those demonstrations were not only about the Polish spirit, they were also demonstrations of the sacred faith in Jesus Christ. She said Father Jacek filled the confessionals with people. He convinced many people to return to the Catholic Church. She said we can all see how much good has happened around us during the past few months.
After Father Jacek was removed, the right-wing TV host reported with a touch of reproach in his voice to the spokesman of the Bishop of Wrocław, there were tons of testimonies [just like Justyna’s]. People had tears in their eyes when they spoke about the great work of evangelization that Father Jacek had carried out in his parish. Thanks to him a hundred thousand people recited Sub Tuum Praesidium during the “Independence March” in Warsaw.
[Would it not be a great loss to let go of a priest who got a hundred thousand people say a prayer to the Holy Mary? Would it not be a great loss for Wrocław and for all of Lower Silesia, and now, once he has left the Congregation of Missionaries, for the whole Catholic Church?
It won’t, because he assures everyone that he means to remain close to the Church. He may want to share some information on the homosexual lobby that rules it, but apart from that, he will remain faithful.]
In Wrocław’s Market Square some guy pissed over the people who were praying for the conversion of homosexuals and the prosecutor’s office terminated the investigation. It also terminated the investigation regarding “Golgotha Picnic,” an offensive theatre play. But they just clung to Justyna and wanted to drag her to court. Another Justyna enters the picture – she is a prosecutor from Wrocław. Many supporters of the National Radical Justyna think that Justyna the Prosecutor is very selective in her quest for human dignity since she wants to prosecute [mostly] national Catholic values. Justyna the Prosecutor did not like the speech National Radical Justyna gave in the Market Square in Wrocław. The accused requested that the Minister of Justice himself intervene. Justyna will not do much harm to the other Justyna. The prosecution suspended the proceedings.
The newspapers said recently that the very same prosecutor’s office [the one that persecutes national Catholic values] decided that slogans about “Islamic savages” and “chasing the left-wing scum away” were not hate speech. They were just critical of EU policies. The prosecutor’s office suspended the investigation regarding the anti-immigrant protest organized by the National Radical Camp.
[So maybe the prosecutor is not so bad after all?]
Justyna is still waiting her turn.
IV
The Frame of the Triptych
[Thick, dark, made of solid Polish wood. Dated early Middle Ages.]
Father Jacek was a rather exemplary cleric. Some say that even back in the seminary he expressed his opinions, albeit quietly.
[Where did his love for war come from?]
Father Jacek [just like Piotr the Puppet Man] was raised to gaze patriotically on the Fatherland, with great attention for the history and heritage of the Polish Nation. He was an exemplary cleric (because he didn’t spend much time being a priest before he became a nationalist and finally left the priesthood). In the seminary he watched his diet, exercised, prayed and even published a magazine about love and peace.
[How is it possible that the seminary did not change his radical views?]
When Father Jacek received a formal ban on speaking in public, the officials from the Congregation of Missionaries made it clear that they did not share the views expressed in his recent speeches. They said they deeply believe that everyone, regardless of their views, deserves respect. They repeated this after Father Jacek left his order. They added that they did not support any extreme nationalist movements.
When Father Jacek said his goodbyes, he thanked his wonderful superiors. He thanked from the bottom of his heart. He thanked the pastor and the Visitor for having done everything, absolutely everything they could, to help him stay in Wrocław.
[The priests deserve a round of applause. Well done!]
In the meantime, the yellow van that doubles as a platform keeps appearing at the Market Square in Wrocław, exhibiting the Wrocław Triptych. Perhaps the march on November 11, 2016 along with the numerous notifications to the prosecutor’s office make it a good moment for the Church to speak up?
To say something about nationalism, anti-Semitism and racism?
The Church was hoping Father Jacek would stop speaking in public and the whole thing, with God’s help, would quiet down. Church officials didn’t expect him to change his views, all he had to do was apologize and comply with the ban. All he had to do was avoid getting involved in unnecessary demonstrations so the newspapers would stop writing about the whole thing.
[We’re waiting.]
Justyna is waiting, because her case is suspended. Piotr is waiting, because his sentence is not final. Jacek is waiting – he got away with it in Białystok, now he’s waiting for the decision in Wrocław.
[We are all waiting, our eyes fixed on the triptych.]
Translation: Aga Zano
Proofreading: Barbara Pendzich
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