Thousands turn up at Polish border to ‘save world’

WARSAW: Hundreds of thousands of Polish Catholics are expected to descend on the country’s borders to recite the rosary “to save Poland and the world” from the dangers facing them, organisers say, but others claim the event is aimed at protecting Europe from what they term a Muslim onslaught.

The episcopate insisted that the “Rosary to the Borders” was a purely religious initiative, but some Catholics view it as a weapon against “Islamisation”.

The date was not chosen at random. Oct 7 is when Catholics celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, marking the 1571 victory of Christianity over the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto.

A victory attributed to the recital of the rosary “that saved Europe from Islamisation”, the Solo Dios Basta foundation said on the website of the event it was organising.

Many Poles see Islam as a threat. The conservative government, which enjoys the backing of a sizeable portion of the population, refused to welcome migrants to Poland, which had very few Muslims of its own.

Twenty-two border dioceses will take part in the event, whose faithful will congregate in some 200 churches for a lecture and mass before travelling to the border to say the rosary. The goal is to have as many prayer points as possible along the 3,511km that make up Poland’s borders with Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and the Baltic Sea.

Fishing boats will join in at sea, while kayaks and sailboats will form a chain along rivers and lakes.

Prayers will also be said at the chapels of a few international airports. Organisers hope one million people will show up for the event. The railways are offering tickets for a symbolic 1 zloty (RM1.15) to around 40 destinations on the border.

The goal is to pray for world peace, according to Father Pawel Rytel-Andrianik, spokesman for the Polish Bishops’ Conference. AFP