Precis

When Poland's Archbishop of Krakow talks about fighting a plague, he's not talking about the new coronavirus. He's talking about gay rights.

"A certain ideology is a threat to our hearts and minds...so we need to defend ourselves just like against any other plague," says Archbishop Jedraszewski.

In the 1980s Poland played a central part in liberating the world from communism. Now there's a push to wind back many of those hard-won freedoms.

The Catholic church and the Polish government are forming a holy alliance, joining forces to denounce Western-style liberalism as the new enemy.

"From the very beginning the history of the Polish state and Polish nation were connected with the history of Christianity," says Archbishop Jedraszewski.

In today's Poland, the church is supporting government moves to discriminate against gay people, wind back sex education and outlaw abortion.

But feminists, gays and liberals are fighting back. 

Foreign Correspondent's Eric Campbell reports on a deeply divided nation in the throes of a culture war.

He meets the Archbishop of Krakow who likens gay activists to the much-reviled Soviets who occupied Poland after the Second World War.

"This time it is not a red but a rainbow plague," says Archbishop Jedraszewski. 
Regional governments across Poland have declared about a third of the country 'an LGBT free zone'.

Eric interviews critics of the current government, including Lech Walesa, the father of Polish democracy, who warns "our Constitution is being broken, the separation of powers has been violated and we have to do something about it."

He meets a gay mayor in a small town who says the rhetoric from church and state is leading to an "increase in hatred spreading against homosexual people."

And he films at a far-right rally in Warsaw where Catholic extremists are co-opting the church in their bid to push their nationalist agenda and vision of Poland as a new theocracy.

While many Poles believe a religious revival will lead their country to the light, others fear it is opening the gates to something darker.

Warsaw skyline

Music

00:00

Super: Warsaw, Poland

00:05

Aerial. Independence Day rally

00:08

Crowd at rally

00:11

CROWD:  "Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Hail Mary, full of grace,  

00:18

Campbell at rally. Super:
Reporter
Eric Campbell

00:31

Title: A New Crusade

00:35

People pray at rally

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee."

00:42

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: In the days before coronavirus stopped the world, Poland hosted Europe’s biggest far right rally. It was a call for a new crusade – for God, Honour and Fatherland.

00:45

Bakiewicz at rally

CROWD:  "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee."

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The rally leader, Robert Bakiewicz, is on a quest to build a pure, Catholic state.

01:01

CROWD:  "God, Honour, Fatherland!"

01:08

Campbell in crowd

ROBERT BAKIEWICZ:  You know what they are afraid of?

01:15

Bakiewicz addressing rally holding cross

They are afraid of this! Marxists! Lefties! They are afraid of this! Look! We will rise once again. Hail! Hail! Christ the King!

01:17

Campbell in crowd

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: I’ve come here to see how religion is being weaponised in a fight for power.

01:32

Rally crowd

It’s a country where nationalists equate Catholicism with white, Polish identity. Where Church and State have grown unsettlingly close to reshape society. And where the father of Polish democracy, Lech Walesa says democracy is now in peril.

LECH WALESA: These images show us the awoken demons. 

01:38

And to the world, including you, I say: do not neglect democracy.

02:02

Walesa interview

In Poland we neglected elections and the populists won and we have a huge problem today.

02:13

Aerial of rally

02:21

Apartment high rise buildings

02:30

Interior. Tolsdorf family apartment

[Singing]

02:37

Tolsdorf family sing and pray

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: It’s Sunday morning and the Tolsdorf family are praying in their small home before they head to their big church.

02:42

PIOTR TOLSDORF:  "We ask You for a bigger flat for us."

FAMILY: "Hear our prayer."

02:53

Piotr leads prayer

PIOTR TOLSDORF:  "We ask You for the Holy Spirit’s blessing for our family, a bigger flat, protection over our parents and siblings."

02:58

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Piotr Tolsdorf and his wife Malgosia have eight kids in a two-bedroom apartment. Like many devout couples, they’re planning to have more. Luckily for them, their pro-Catholic government encourages big families. Every month it pays them nearly $200 per child.

03:05

Piotr interview

PIOTR TOLSDORF:  We can afford some trips and holiday sightseeing. Basic expenses, you know, eight pairs of shoes, eight jackets, eight school backpacks. It all costs money and it is a significant help for us and for many other families. This is very helpful and was missing before.

03:29

Tolsdorf children in bedroom

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The Tolsdorfs also support their government’s view of what makes a real family.

PIOTR TOLSDORF:  The family is: mother, father, children.

04:03

Piotr interview

All attempts to change it will lead to the destruction of family and society.

04:14

Tolsdorf children in bedroom

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Poland is embracing its Catholic roots. For a lifetime, it was ruled by communists, then liberal democrats. Now the government is putting conservative church doctrine into law, whether it’s on gay rights, abortion, or IVF. It’s even trying to criminalise sex education.

04:21

Piotr interview

PIOTR TOLSDORF:  I believe that we can remain a Catholic country, a bedrock of faith in Europe. And I believe that Europe will go back to the values it was based on.

04:44

Family sing

[Singing]

04:59

Cityscapes

05:08

Government building

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  In 2015, the populist Law and Justice Party came to power on the promise of restoring traditional Catholic values. The church now sits on the right hand of government.

05:19

ELLA PODLEŚNA: Officially, there is of course, separation of church and state, but it's a sort of fiction in Poland.

05:34

Ella 100%

They are just like twin brothers, I would say. One cannot live without another.

05:43

Ella in courthouse

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Ella Podleśna is a 51-year-old psychotherapist who is seen as an enemy of Church and State.

05:51

Campbell in court watching Ella

JUDGE: "Do you admit guilt in this matter?"

ELLA: "No, Your Honour. I don’t."

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: In 2016, she helped organise mass protests that stopped a proposed ban on all abortions.  Now she’s facing a two year jail term for painting rainbows on Madonnas to condemn the church’s treatment of gays.

06:04

ELLA PODLEŚNA: There was a sort of proverb in my family, which was be useful.

06:28

Ella 100%

Make the best use of yourself. And I just try to follow that.

06:34

Gay pride march

CROWD: "God, Honour, Fatherland!"

06:42

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Last year she was attacked in a gay pride rally that church leaders called a blasphemy.

06:50

ELLA PODLEŚNA:  We were physically attacked. Only by chance nothing serious happened, because when people are taught by the church that LGBT people are connected with paedophilia,

06:58

Ella 100%

it is to cover their own problems with paedophilia within the church which comes up to the surface very often now.

07:12

Gay pride march

CROWD:  "Poofters are prohibited."

07:21

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: This was the first ever pride march in the conservative city of Bialystok and priests joined the crowd trying to stop it.

ELLA PODLEŚNA: The attackers think that they have got the blessing from the church.

07:25

Protestor burns rainbow flag

CROWD: "God, Honour, Fatherland!"

07:41

Krakow. World heritage sites

Music

07:46

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The medieval capital, Krakow, is a stark example of how much power the church can wield.

07:53

Campbell walks World Heritage Centre

It was home to a young priest who became Poland’s first Pope, John Paul II.  Its World Heritage Centre has made it one of Europe’s most romantic destinations. But lately it’s become renowned for something else.

08:02

Campbell to camera in town square

With the blessing of the Catholic Church, the regional government has declared this to be an LGBT-free zone. What’s more, the Archbishop of Krakow has likened what he calls LGBT ideology to communism, saying Poland once faced a red plague, now it’s facing a rainbow plague. So what does that mean?

08:24

Campbell to meeting with Archbishop Jędraszewski at palace

The archbishop has agreed to meet me in his palace, the seat of church leaders since the 14^th century. Marek Jędraszewski was a close friend of John Paul II and at 70 is one of the most influential figures in Poland.

08:47

Campbell greets archbishop

Eric: "Hello, sir."

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: He makes no apology for likening gay activists to the Soviets who occupied post-war Poland.

09:07

Jędraszewski 100%

MAREK JĘDRASZEWSKI:  This time it´s not a red plague, but a rainbow plague. An ideology that wants to subjugate us is a threat to our hearts and minds. It is a great threat so we need to defend ourselves just like against any other plague.

09:16

Krakow GVs

Music

09:40

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Outside the palace walls, Poland looks a thoroughly modern European country. It’s a full member of the EU and bound by its rules legalising same sex relations.

09:47

But a third of the country has now been declared LGBT-free. That’s a largely symbolic gesture, but the EU has condemned it for encouraging homophobia.

10:03

Church service

The church says Poland should follow God over Brussels.

10:17

MAREK JĘDRASZEWSKI:  From the very beginning the history of the Polish state and Polish nation were connected with this history of Christianity. Hence, this special role with these three elements:

10:25

Jędraszewski 100%

Christianity, nation and state were so tightly connected, they were almost inseparable.

10:37

Children in park playground

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: You can see that special role in schools. Almost every child in public school has to attend Catholic education classes, starting from kindergarten.

ELLA PODLEŚNA: The program of religious lessons

10:45

Ella 100%

cannot be verified and checked by anybody, except the Bishop.

11:01

Children into school

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Last year, the liberal mayor of Warsaw tried to introduce sex education into curriculums. He suggested discussing same sex issues, as recommended by the World Health Organization, but the parliament is now pushing for three-year-jail terms for teaching children about sex.

11:09

Man plays accordion in park

MAREK JĘDRASZEWSKI:  The modern church in Poland

11:36

Jędraszewski 100%

cannot remain silent about clear threats, especially to young children and teenagers, connected with LGBT ideology and WHO guidelines.

11:42

Police presence in city

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The church has remained silent over what critics call attacks on democracy. The Law and Justice party has been stripping the independence of public institutions, including courts and State media.

12:00

Man: "Let public television stop telling lies.

12:17

News report. Protest against state television

Stop telling lies."

12:20

News footage. Ella at protest

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Ella Podleśna’s latest legal problems stem from this rowdy protest against State television, which she says has become a government mouthpiece. The news network portrayed her as a dangerous radical…

12:22

NEWSREADER: "She insults and provokes TV security guards and police officers."

ELLA: "Pawns.  Lapdogs of power."

12:38

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: …hounded her from her job at a public hospital, and had her charged with hooliganism.

12:43

Campbell greets Ella outside courthouse

ERIC: "Hello, Ella.  Back in court again?"

ELLA: "Yes."

ERIC: "How many times are you in court these days?"

ELLA: "I don’t know how it happens, but every Wednesday. It happens every week."

12:53

Ella in corridor of courthouse reading notices

13:04

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: She´s not expecting a fair trial. The government has been increasing its power to hire and fire judges.

ELLA: "AHHH!"

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: But today, there’s some good news. The judge hearing the charge is, in her opinion, one of the few independent judges left.

13:19

ERIC: "What’s happened?"

ELLA: "The same judge."

ERIC: "You’ve got the slightly friendlier judge you had before?"

ELLA: "The honest judge, who respects the constitution."

13:30

Gdansk GVs

Music

13:42

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: There was a time when liberals and the church stood shoulder to shoulder to fight for constitutional democracy. The port city of Gdansk was the scene of an epic political struggle that marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.

13:48

Campbell into museum

In 1980, a young shipyard electrician, Lech Walesa, formed an independent trade union called Solidarity.

14:06

Museum archival footage of Walesa

Walesa: "We’ve got the right to strike!"

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The Soviet-controlled government declared martial law and threw Walesa in prison. But the Catholic church and Pope John Paul II stood behind him.

14:20

Solidarity toppled Communism, a new democracy was born, and a young dissident became president.

14:42

Gdansk GVs

Happy days, now long gone.

14:53

Campbell to camera

Whatever unity there was in the Cold War has been smashed by a culture war, a fight over the kind of country the new Poland will become – liberal and open or conservative, nationalistic and intensely Catholic. So why have things become so divided? Well, today we’re going to meet the man who started Poland’s transformation, Lech Walesa.

15:02

Walesa greets Campbell

At 76, he’s still a regular in the shipyard, working out of an office in its museum.  But he’s a staunch critic of the ruling Law and Justice Party, always wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word ‘constitution’.

15:28

Walesa 100%

LECH WALESA:  In Poland. I want to say that our constitution is being broken. The separation of powers is violated and we have to do something about it.  And to the world, including you, I say do not neglect democracy. In Poland we neglected elections, we neglected democracy and the populists won and we have a huge problem today.

15:46

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Walesa is a devout Catholic, but he’s highly critical of the church’s close ties to the government.

16:10

LECH WALESA:  When we achieved freedom, everything should have returned to its proper place, including the Church as it used to be in the past. This time, many priests haven’t returned to their religious field because they started to enjoy their political roles.

16:15

Gdansk shipyard views

Music

16:37

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: But inside Solidarity, his objections are ignored.

16:45

KAROL GUZIKIEWICZ:  These symbols mean that we are connected with John Paul II,

16:50

Campbell with Guzikiewicz at shipyard

of course, the law should protect them.  

16:55

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Karol Guzikiewicz  is Solidarity’s deputy leader in Gdansk Shipyard. He’s also a regional councillor for the Law and Justice Party.

16:58

KAROL GUZIKIEWICZ:  We were always a team with Virgin Mary and John Paul II. It's what keeps our spirits high. And we are fighting for those symbols to stay here forever.

17:11

In car touring shipyard

Music

17:22

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: He took me on a tour of the shipyard which now only manufactures parts, not whole ships.

17:28

KAROL GUZIKIEWICZ: There´s a handful of people working, very few.

17:35

Guzikiewicz driving

In 1980 there were 17,000. Now there are only 700.

17:41

Shipyard

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: He started working here in 1980, the year Solidarity was formed, when he was just 15.

KAROL GUZIKIEWICZ:  I was a big fan of Lech Walesa back then.

17:45

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: These days, many workers see Walesa as a traitor, selling out Poland to the West when he became President.

17:57

Guzikiewicz interview

KAROL GUZIKIEWICZ:  He did nothing for the shipyard. He didn’t protest against its closure. He did nothing.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Karol Guzikiewicz is happy with Poland’s embrace of conservative Catholic values.

18:06

KAROL GUZIKIEWICZ:  If somebody doesn’t support Catholic ideas, then they shouldn’t belong to Solidarity. Of course, we have people of other faiths in the union, but they shouldn’t interfere.

18:17

Gdansk GVs

Music

18:28

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The Law and Justice Government was re-elected in October with almost 44 per cent of the vote, the highest for any party since the return of democracy. But does that mean people automatically support a conservative Catholic agenda?

18:32

Music

18:48

Marcin into supermarket

18:51

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Marcin Nikrant lives in a small town outside Gdansk called Lesniewo. It’s a stronghold of the Law and Justice Party. But Marcin, who is openly gay, has been elected mayor three times.

18:58

MARCIN NIKRANT:  They’re really interested in what I can do for them.  If I’m helpful or not. They really don’t care about my private life. They don’t care who I am sleeping with.

19:14

Marcin interview in home

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: So you're always available when people need you?

MARCIN NIKRANT:  Yes. They can call me. They can write me an email. They can also come here to my home.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: So you’re bit like a priest.

MARCIN NIKRANT:  Well, maybe – you can say that, but I’m very far away from thinking and saying these kind of things.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Yeah. The church is very strong

19:27

in talking about a rainbow plague and things like that. Is that making life less safe, is it encouraging people to use hate speech?

19:49

MARCIN NIKRANT:  I think that what the Polish church says increases hatred against homosexual people. What has been happening recently is, in my opinion, a complete distortion of the church’s role.

19:59

Catholic church

Music

20:20

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: While the church has made life harder for gays, it still wants to claim them as Catholics.

20:26

Campbell and Marcin walk to church

"So Marcin you´re actually in the process of leaving the church now. What´s all that about?"

20:32

MARCIN: "That´s right."

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Marcin Nikrant is now struggling through a legal process to be removed from the parish register.

20:36

MARCIN NIKRANT: I have to apply, I want to leave the Polish Catholic Church, I have to bring two people who will confirm that I’m sure.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Two witnesses?

MARCIN NIKRANT: Yeah, two witnesses that I’m sure that I want to leave the Catholic Church.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: And then the priest has to sign your release?

MARCIN NIKRANT: He decides if that’s right, if I’m sure, he decides if I can leave the Catholic Church.

20:44

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: So there’s actually a bureaucratic process you have to go to, to be allowed to leave Catholicism.

MARCIN NIKRANT: Yes, that’s right. That's funny and sad at the same time, in my opinion.

21:09

St. Mary's church, Krakow

[Church bells]

21:18

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The church has maintained its grip on power despite a sex scandal that seriously damaged its moral credibility.

21:34

Excerpt. 'Tell No One'

- Did he lock himself in the room with you?

- Yes.

21:50

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Last year, a crowd funded documentary called ‘Tell No One’ used hidden cameras to reveal a widespread history of priests abusing children.

Woman: "Father, I hope that God will judge you justly and appropriately.

21:53

God be with you."

Priest: " I am really, really sorry for everything. I really, really regret it."

22:10

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Released on YouTube, it was viewed nearly 20 million times in the first week. One of its most shocking revelations was how the church had relocated paedophile priests.

22:21

Jędraszewski 100%

MAREK JĘDRASZEWSKI:  It needs to be understood that the Church didn’t break any of its own laws or State laws by moving the priests who were guilty of these crimes to other parishes.

22:44

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Why should anyone take seriously what the church says about morality when it failed so fundamentally its own moral obligations?

22:55

MAREK JĘDRASZEWSKI:  The film's accusations are to some extent untrue in relation to the contemporary Church. Unfortunately, it was like that in the 1980s. But it shouldn’t be applied to the modern Church’s approach.

23:04

Vistula River

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Catholicism doesn’t just dominate mainstream politics, it’s become a rallying call for violent extremists.

23:28

Ultranationalist group training on riverbank

In the capital, Warsaw, an ultranationalist group is training on the Vistula River. It’s two days before a mass rally they’ve organised to mark Polish Independence Day. This is a staged media event to show how they’ll defend themselves from leftists.

23:37

Group member: "How do the Lefties stand? We want to stand like them but we don't know how." 

24:04

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Many of these self-styled bodyguards belong to National Radical Camp, a revival of a 1930s fascist movement. But their

24:15

Bakiewicz at training exercise

leader, Robert Bakiewicz, insists they’re not fascists, just Catholic patriots.

24:25

Bakiewicz 100%

ROBERT BAKIEWICZ:  The National Movement in Poland before the Second World War was fully Polish. It was not contaminated by atheist fascism or German Nazism. Today, the stigma of a fascist is used against anybody who doesn’t agree with that liberal-leftist pulp being sold to us.

24:37

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: What would you like to see, what Catholic doctrines would you like to see put into law in Poland?

24:59

ROBERT BAKIEWICZ: All Catholic values because they founded what we can call the greatest and the most wonderful and beautiful civilisation that ever existed on earth. I mean Western civilisation.

25:05

Bakiewicz and others at church

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: On Independence Day, he and his followers gather in church ahead of their mass rally and march. The theme of this year’s gathering is defending the Catholic Church. The symbol is a fist clutching a rosary. Robert Bakiewicz will be wielding a crucifix. His chosen slogan …

25:17

Bakiewicz interview in church carpark

ROBERT BAKIEWICZ: "Take care of the whole nation." It’s a quotation from a song about the Virgin Mary. It’s a reference to contemporary times, to the attacks of cultural Marxism, the fight between good and evil, truth and lies. And we, as Poles, call on Virgin Mary, the Queen of Poland to protect us, to give us the strength to fight.

25:46

Bakiewicz into car

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: In recent years, the far right has hijacked Independence Day celebrations, with the acquiescence of government. The previous year’s gathering was addressed by the President.

26:15

Warsaw. Independence Day gathering

Music

26:29

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  The centre of Warsaw soon fills will 60,000 people, many of them ordinary families.

26:35

Far right groups rally

Far right groups have converged from across Europe. Many sport the Celtic cross, the adopted symbol for white supremacists.

CROWD: "God, Honour, Fatherland!"

26:44

Dutch man at Independence Day gathering

MAN:  We’re from Holland.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  From Holland. What are you doing in Poland today?

MAN: We are here for the nationalism and the march and connect with people and meet people who think like us and want the same for their countries.

27:02

Bakiewicz address rally

ROBERT BAKIEWICZ: "Listen, I am asking you to create a counter-offensive. To start a counter-revolution! Only a real spiritual counter-revolution is able to defend our nation. Thank you once again and Hail, great Poland!"

27:16

CROWD: "God, Honour, Fatherland!"

27:41

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Among the crowd are several politicians, including a prominent Law and Justice MP Dominik Tarczynski.

27:48

Tarczynski at rally

DOMINIK TARCZYNSKI:  I am here because I love Poland, I love my family. I want Poland to be safe, to develop, to be Christian.

27:56

CROWD: "God, Honour, Fatherland!"

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: As the march proceeds, the chanting grows more militant and threatening.

28:03

Crowd march and chant

CROWD: "Use a sickle, use a hammer, smash the red rabble… It´s us, the Poles!... Don’t tighten the belt! Tighten the fist!... Fuck Antifa! Fuck Antifa!... Poland! Youth! Nationalism!"

28:13

Burning of flag

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The MP Dominik Tarczynski promised us an interview, but like other government figures we approached after the rally, he proved unavailable.

28:47

LECH WALESA:  Politicians gave the floor over to demagogues and populists,

29:00

Walesa 100%

now they are preaching now this nonsense. It’s dangerous.

29:05

Tolsdorf family leave apartment and walk to church

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Some devout Catholics, like Piotr Tolsdorf, told us they found the rally and its violent messages disturbing.

29:10

Tolsdorf family at church

PIOTR TOLSDORF:  Faith isn't about raising fists or showing your might. Most saints were meek and obedient, sometimes even silent. Those people marching, I trust they are believers, but their way of showing faith by fights or destroying things, it shouldn´t be like that.

29:25

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Many hope conservative Catholic values will lead their country to the light.

29:55

Flag burning

Others fear they risk opening the gates to something darker.

30:08

Credits [see below]

Music

30:14

Outpoint

30:35