The 12th Conservative Congress at the Royal Castle in Niepołomice near Kraków has ended. Lectures about the family and its situation were delivered by professor Roberto de Mattei, professor Piotr Jaroszyński and Lech Haydukiewicz, PhD. Mariusz Dzierżawski received the Father Piotr Skarga Prize.
The 12th Conservative Congress started with a prayer. Then an opening speech was delivered by the host of the meeting, Sławomir Olejniczak, president of the Father Piotr Skarga Institute for Social and Religious Education. While welcoming the guests, he explained why the family was the theme of the congress. He noted that during the current Synod, representatives of some episcopates promote anti-family concepts. In spite of this, we cannot be pessimistic. The host of the 12th Conservative Congress concluded his opening speech by saying that we should be hopeful as the Mother of God promised during her apparitions at Fatima that she would triumph.
Wesprzyj nas już teraz!
The first guest to speak at the 12th Conservative Congress was professor Roberto de Mattei, the vice-president of the Italian National Research Council, founder and president of the Lepanto Foundation. The professor talked about the backstage of the current Synod of Bishops. According to de Mattei, “satanic smoke” can be seen more and more clearly, and the forces of evil attack the family, which is the last bastion of civilisation.
The historian recalled the shocking words of German-speaking hierarchs who undermined Catholic moral teaching. Professor Roberto de Mattei criticised those clergymen for their purely sociological approach to the family. It is the confusion of the concept of metaphysical and moral good and evil. From the point of view of philosophy, God is the highest good and did not create anything evil in the world, recalled professor de Mattei, expressing concerns about what might happen to the family after the Synod. He added that this is not just a question of divorced people who form new relationships. It is the question of the attitude of the Church and the faithful towards three sacraments, namely penance, matrimony and the Eucharist.
The speaker noted that the New Order of Mass introduced after the Second Vatican Council led to the situation when the liturgy does not help Catholics believe in the real presence, an example of which is the reception of Holy Communion in the hand, which was supposed to be an exception but in many countries has become common practice. This was followed by the de-Romanisation of the Church, which might lead to change of the single, universal, holy, and apostolic church into a federation. With faith and hope we can win the battle for the family! There is only one moral teaching of the Church. The moral truth consists in marriage and the family. I hope that the Synod will interpret it this way, professor Roberto de Mattei noted in the conclusion of his lecture.
The next speaker of the 12th Conservative Congress was professor Piotr Jaroszyński, a philosopher, writer, and academic lecturer. He gave a lecture titled “Ideological sources of the crisis of the family”. Is it a self-initiated crisis, because we live in such times, or is it a controlled crisis?, professor Jaroszyński asked at the beginning, and then answered his question by saying that there are institutions and circles interested in weakening the family.
The focus of the crisis is a utopian ideology, said the lecturer. The utopia of a “perfect” society wants to revolutionise the family. The professor recalled the stipulation of the first utopist, Plato. According to the Greek, the state should match pairs and then take control over their offspring, take children away from their parents, and decide about their fate. According to the ancient philosopher, gender differences should be obliterated, reminded professor Jaroszyński. Today, such a scenario is being implemented. Absolute Enlightenment rulers, and then left-wing parties, started putting in practice various utopias. What they shared was the desire to “repair” people. The most dangerous ideologies are socialism and liberalism. These two ideologies join in the fight against the family, the professor remarked, observing that both in the Polish People’s Republic and now, seemingly contradictory movements join in the fight against the family. Why do these ideologies consider the family as the common enemy? The lecturer said that the family is the centre of Latin personalistic civilisation. The family is a micro-civilisation. He added that the family upholds the inalienable rights of the human being, where the right to life is one of the basic ones. Generations help each other to improve. A Latin family is based on the language, passed down from generation to generation. It is a carrier of tradition and national identity. Currently, we are witnessing a fight to the death for the preservation of Poles’ identity, emphasised professor Jaroszyński describing what the fight against the family, which is a pillar of “Polishness”, looks like. Love is also extremely important for the family, and the most important love is that of God. The state cannot give love to people, this need can only be fulfilled by the family, heard the participants of the congress.
After the lecture, the presentation of the Father Piotr Skarga Prize took place and it was awarded to Mariusz Dzierżawski “for the activities protecting human life from conception to natural death, and protecting the marriage and family”.
This prize is a great honour because of its patron. Father Skarga played an important role in the civilisation wars of the 16th century. Who we are, which tradition we refer to, the fact that Christians in many countries look at Poland with hope, that is the achievement of this great preacher, organiser and educator of youth. It is an honour also because of the founders of the prize. Currently, many of the state institutions and, unfortunately, also the Church institutions are being taken over by “modernisers” who proclaim political correctness. Contemporary protectors of Latin civilisation look with hope at the Father Piotr Skarga Institute. They can always count on you. Thank you for being there and for what you do. The prize is also an honour because of its previous laureates. It is an honour to join them. I would like to thank all my friends from the Foundation Fundacja Pro – Prawo do Życia [Right to Life]. I would like to thank in particular those who expose themselves to police and judicial harassment. I treat this prize as a commitment to continue the fight, said Mariusz Dzierżawski when receiving the prestigious prize.
The laureate of the Father Piotr Skarga Prize is an initiator and leader of many social campaigns organised in Poland since 2005, exposing the truth about abortion. Together with a group of volunteers and co-workers he organised more than 400 exhibitions titled “Choose Life”, and about 1,000 anti-abortion demonstrations throughout the country.
Another lecture during the congress was delivered by Lech Haydukiewicz, PhD, an academic lecturer, initiator of the 1st Demographic Congress. The lecturer analysed the demographic crisis that is affecting the Polish nation and state. According to him, Poland is in a terrible demographic situation. Soon we may find ourselves in the group of medium, rather than big European nations, even though in the 1950s, the demographic development of Poland was extremely dynamic. According to doctor Haydukiewicz, economic issues have a secondary impact on Poles’ decision not to have children. Today, a child does not participate in the process of supporting the family. The problem, however, lies elsewhere, in the attitude towards issues of higher importance, faith. All our hope is in the human need for having children for reasons other than economic, said the lecturer of the 12th Conservative Congress, observing that the number of households increases in Poland, while the number of people decreases, which is the result of the higher number of singles.
As a result of the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the demographic processes that lasted 50 years in the West, took only a few years the East. In addition, populations in Poland and the countries of our region decrease on a large scale. Doctor Haydukiewicz noticed that concerning fertility rate, our country is at the tail end of the world. “Soon we will be a demographic desert,” he emphasised. Fortunately, Poland is quite conservative in terms of reproductive behaviours; we have a low number of illegitimate births. The most pessimistic scenario for Poland says that there will be about 10 million fewer Poles in 50 years, doctor Haydukiewicz concluded his lecture.
The last element of the 12th Conservative Congress was a panel discussion devoted to the protection of the modern family. The discussion was moderated by Sławomir Skiba, editor-in-chief of the “Polonia Christiana” magazine and vice-president of the Father Piotr Skarga Institute. The speakers included: Magdalena Trojanowska from the Initiative “Stop Seksualizacji Naszych Dzieci” [Stop the sexualisation of our children], Mariusz Dzierżawski from the Fundation “Fundacja Pro – Prawo do Życia” [Right to Life], Paweł Kwaśniak from Centrum Wspierania Inicjatyw dla Życia i Rodziny [Support Centre for Initiatives for Life and Family], and professor Aleksander Stępkowski from the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture.
The speakers presented the organisations which they represent and their field of activity. Next, doctor Tymoteusz Zych from the Ordo Iuris presented the report on the Polish pro-family policy prepared by the Institute. He indicated the chaos in the Polish statistical offices, which do not know how many children are born in the country in particular months. Even the poorest countries of Eastern Europe have such data. Analysing the data collected by employees of the Institute, doctor Zych noted that pro-family policy should be directed mainly to multi-children families. Next, Magdalena Trojanowska pointed out that the policy of the European Union and the United Nations supports abortion and euthanasia. This is accompanied by a planned sexualisation.
Mariusz Dzierżawski emphasised the need for activism, especially in a situation where it is difficult to expect the elite to undertake constructive initiatives. We are dealing with authorities of occupation whose aim is to harm the nation. This is not only a Polish problem. They want to “liberate” us from the Church, the family, our identity. For many years we have been watching the destruction of the West. Now the same mechanisms are used in Poland, said Dzierżawski. He added that the best pro-family policy would be not to take money away from parents. Officials should leave families alone, he concluded.
Paweł Kwaśniak chilled the hopes of people expecting that after a possible change of government in Poland, politicians would devote more attention to the protection of life and family. Many politicians assure us of their support for the protection of life, but when it is tested, they fail, said Mariusz Dzierżawski. He added that the institutions protecting the family, as opposed to the left wing, do not use government money but voluntary contributions of people who believe in these ideals. The panellists agreed that there is a chance to stop and reverse the bad trends. However, hard and consistent work is necessary.
The Congress ended with a classical music concert, during which the participants could listen to music by Wojciech Kilar, Johann Strauss, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Johannes Brahms.
