Ten thousand of its supporters who are joined in the so-called Rodzina Radia Maryja, a family of Radio Maryja, came to Rome to take part in the Wednesday 7 November General Audience.
The pope limited himself to a cordial greeting: “to Polish pilgrims, especially the Family of Radio Maria with the Bishops.”
Before leaving St. Peter’s Square, Benedict XVI spoke to each Polish prelate individually.
The prelates had expressed their opinion about an hour prior to this, during the morning mass before the tomb of John Paul II, presided over by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
In his homily, the Archbishop of Częstochowa Wacław Depo, President of the Polish episcopate’s Council for Social Communications, said the following: “In the name of what are restrictive laws being passed in the telecommunications field to hinder Radio Maryja and Trwam television’s presence in the public sphere?”
For administrative and legal reasons, Polish television channel Trwam was excluded from the digital platform that is controlled by the Polish government.
Hence, in St. Peter’s, Archbishop Depo complained about “a tendency to push faith into the private sphere” which goes against the very nature of faith and is discriminatory.”
“As a community of faith, we believe that human conscience and man’s sensitivity towards good and evil are central to the fight for truth and freedom ...so it is clear and obvious that we should have the right to mould social life according to our faith and convictions,” the Polish prelate went on to say.
At the end of his speech, he quoted the worlds pronounced by the Pope during the Angelus prayer last 8 July: “I greet pilgrims of the Family of Radio Maria, gathered in Jasna Góra (Częstochowa), who are praying for their Homeland, for families and for the freedom of expression.”
Benedict XVI’s expression of support did not go unnoticed in the Polish media. A certain feeling between the Holy See and Radio Maryja was noted in the letter sent on 28 July 2011 by the Apostolic Nuncio in Warsaw, Mgr. Celestino Migliore to his superior, Cardinal Bertone, regarding Fr. Rydzyk’s radio station.
The content of the letter was published in Italian journalist and writer Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book, “Sua Santità: Le Carte Segrete di Benedetto XVI” (“His Holiness: Benedict XVI’s Secret Letters”).
The Holy See had just rejected a letter of protest sent by the Polish government, saying it was offended by the words used by the cleric, who, in a statement in Brussels a few days before, had referred to Poland as a totalitarian State.
After stating that “not even Cuba or Sudan would have dared send such a letter,” Mgr. Migliore urged Poland’s leaders: “They cannot elude themselves: if they take things too far and provoke Fr. Rydzyk ... they will be playing with the “lion” and he will retaliate” (pages 266-269).
The publication of this document did not trigger any immediate reaction from the government in Warsaw so the “lion” of Toruń did not have to roar again.