The following sermon was delivered by Cardinal Wyszynsky to a gathering of Polish students in Warsaw after his return from Rome, where he pleaded for a vigorous defense of human rights at the World Synod of Bishops 1974. Our text is based on the German version published in the Austrian newspaper Die Furche of October 12,1974. We are reprinting it here in a slightly abbreviated form, indicating the elipsis whenever it occurs. The words of His Eminence are relevant not only to the Polish people, but to all Christians and particularly to the Ukrainian Catholics.
At times one gets the impression that life in the Church in the post-Vatican II era deviates substantially from the event which transpired on Calvary, that the Church of today has drastically reduced its demands; that she solves her problems not in accordance with the will of the living God, but rather in accordance with human possibilities; that she ignores the errors of her children and her servants — namely, bishops, priests, and monks, and finally, that even the Credo and the Christian ethics have become elastic and relative. In the newspapers of our country and in the world, one reads the opinions of various theologians who search for the truth of the Church, often without results, and who frequently display in their treatises their own ignorance. The Church, which these authors describe, is a Church in the fog. A Church without the stone tablets of the Decalogue. A Church which shuts its eyes before sin and which fears the reproach of being traditional, backward, and unmodern. It is a Church of polemizing theologians and not a Church of Teachers for whom a Yes is a Yes and a No is a No. But inspite of this artificial fog of doubt and insecurity, the believer is still able to discover the true faith of the Church in the post-Vatican II era. This Church has the great honor to number among its cardinals courageous Confessors of the Faith, Martyrs, and Prisoners. Here are some examples. Not too long ago Cardinal Trochta died in Czechoslovakia. He spent practically his entire life as a bishop in prisons and concentration camps. He was exiled from his diocese and sentenced to forced labor in a factory… His entire crime was the fact that he was a bishop of the Church of Christ.
Cardinal Stepinac was also a prisoner and an exile… He was exiled from his See for being a bishop who believed in Christ.
Far away from his bishopric See died Cardinal Beran, the Archbishop of Prague, an inmate of the Dachau Concentration camp and a prisoner of our time. His crime was also the fact that he was a bishop and that he belived in Christ. He has died in the calling of Holiness. Also Cardinal Mindszenty, the Primate of Hungary, was a prisoner who was removed from his bishopric See. Why was this done? Was he a criminal? An enemy of his people and his country? No, he was a bishop and he believed in Christ.
And finally, Cardinal Slipyj, the Archbishop of Lviv. He was more than twenty years in prison and in exile. He now lives outside his native county. Why? Again and again why? Those cowards never give an honest answer. That is the true Church in post-Vatican II Council era. God himself has answered the question how this Church should be when he sent cardinals to the front, who then became Confessors of Faith, prisoners and martyrs for the sake of Christ.
There can be no doubt, ladies and gentlemen, that your passes and your student identity cards tell you who you are. But only the Spirit of God can tell you who you really are and where you come from; that Spirit which acts in you, which touches your conscience, and invigorates your feelings. The time has come in which you must speak without fear, for man becomes prey to inferiority, when he does not esteem himself, when he fails to defend his human dignity and his rights. The time has come for you to raise finally your voice against the disorder in the intellectual, moral, and social life. You must tell one another: Have respect for your human dignity, for you come from the hand of the Heavenly Father,,.
The time has come to tell your elders and your teachers: teach us the truth and do not ruin us. Do not take our faith. Do not destroy our Christian and moral way of life by yours silly ideas of secularization, which no one can understand and for the propagation of which, immense sums of money are spent. Do not take from us the faith in the living God. The time has come to tell your parents: if you are not able to bring us up in the Christian spirit, because you do not know how, or because you have no time for it, then at least, do not weaken our courage to embrace the faith. Do not discourage us, so that we will not sell the dignity which God has given us, for a bowl of soup.
The greatest sin is not that of non-belief, which can be a personal misfortune of human ignorance, but rather, the organization of this non-belief, the construction of atheistic programs, the support of the atheistic system with all social and public means. These means were not given to the state to destroy the faith in God, but to preserve public order, not to tear down, but to build. The time has come for you to tell the truth even to those who, under the pretext of social activity, try to stop you on Sundays and holydays from enjoying free time and from going to the temple of God. They put pickaxes into your hands and order you to excavate graves and put in cables. That is not work for young people, it is economically not responsible.They take from you the time necessary for relaxation, that pause of breath, that life within a community, within the family circle, which restores your strength after a week of labor; they deprive you of the contact with your family with the temple of God and with the Holy Eucharist.
It is neccessary to say all this courageously, because the biggest enemies of our country, of the people and of the state are the cowards and the silent citizens, who do not have the courage to speak out: You can not do this! You have no right to organize forced labor under the guise of social activities. You have no right to abolish the Sunday rest period in Poland, instead of curtailing the time of work. Did we really become so unmodern and economically so impotent, that we are forced to return to slavery?
