In good news for Poland, the new president elected on Sunday is Lech Kaczynski, mayor of Warsaw and Solidarity activist. He’s a pro-life conservative and Catholic and should help to turn back the slide in Poland on social issues that began under the former administration. The two conservative parties that won the majority of the vote will now form a government after they also won the parliamentary elections in September.
It’s a good thing to see the former Communists and Socialists pushed from power and a return of a conservative government to very Catholic Poland. Perhaps there was some intercession from a favored son now in heaven.
Update: Of course, not everyone is happy with the election. (The Guardian)
Poland could lose its EU voting rights if its newly elected president continues to oppose gay rights and seeks to introduce the death penalty, the European Commission warned yesterday.
If you’re not going to be a nice member of the ultra-lefty EU, we’re going to make you pay for it. Why exactly were so many Catholics in favor of the EU and its drive to deprive people of sovereignty and impose the new liberal orthodoxy on everyone?
I’ve often wondered why Poland, or any other sovereign country in Europe, would so eagerly join the EU. I do believe the people were deceived from the start, thinking only of financial benefits.
Thank God the people were wise enough to defeat the EU Constitution.
I am so glad to learn about Poland’s new president. This long suffering country and the home of John Paul the Great is now on the right track. Losing their EU rights is a blessing, rather than a punishment.
Why were Catholics so in favor of the EU (like Ireland and Spain)?
MONEY.
Ireland, after she regained independence in the ‘20s established the most Catholic constitution of any modern nation. But centuries of British oppression had left the economy moribund.
EU membership has resulted in tons of money flowing into Ireland, and surprise! with economic wealth we see a rapid dissolution of Catholic faith and practice. Spain has gone through a similar process.
And of coure, the same thing happened here in the U.S. Catholics joined the middle and upper classes (the highest average incomes in the U.S. are found in German and Irish Catholics) and pow, the practice of the faith starts to diminish.
This shouldn’t be surprising (although it constantly is). We were warned by the Teacher Himself that it would be easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter heaven. Is it possible? Oh yes, just as it is possible to walk across Niagra Falls on a tightrope, but the best guess is that most people who would try that walk would drown, and being rich presents similar danger.
If he is pro-life, then there shouldn’t be a concern that he will introduce the death penalty, right?
I’m no expert, but it seems to me both Poland and Ukraine are showing the most hope of all the former commie countries.