_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Poland_______________
Bishops set to confront pro-abortion government
Electoral effort falls short
Poland’s Catholic bishops undertook an unprecedented pro-life intervention into the country’s politics when, just one week before the general elections in September, the bishops had a letter read in every parish urging Catholics—some 93 percent of the Polish population—not to support the country’s ex-Communist social democrats because of their support for abortion. Despite the request, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and its small party ally, the Labor Union, won control of the parliament.
Without naming the party directly, the bishops warned the faithful against voting for a “party that has an ideological continuity with the Communist party that has announced . . . the intention of re-enacting a law authorizing for social reasons the killing of an unborn baby.” The letter said:
A Catholic society cannot support a political group that has stated directly its intent to introduce laws taking aim against the basic right to life . . . . We must protect values like the sanctity of human life, Christian education for the young generation, and family life. Parties which take a completely secular approach to these values and which propose liberal solutions are not able to guarantee this.
SLD leader Leszek Miller, who was soon to become Poland’s new prime minister, did not dare to repudiate the bishops’ pre-election message directly. When pressed for a comment, he said only: “I believe in the wisdom of the Polish electorate.”
Soon after the election, the SLD confirmed the bishops’ fears by launching an effort to repeal a 1997 law, passed by the former Solidarity government, which restricted abortions to cases of rape or incest, where the unborn child was deformed, or where the mother’s life was in danger.
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