Poland has just erected a monument to the famed Polish king Jan Sobieski III, who fought against the Ottoman invasions of Europe in 1683.
A monument of Polish king Jan III Sobieski has been placed on a platform trailer in front of the Papal Window in Kraków.
The monument has been put on temporary display to remind people of its existence after authorities in Vienna withdrew from a long-term plan to erect it on Kahlenberg hill in Vienna, from where the Polish king launched his history-changing attack 336 years ago.
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The foundation stone for the monument in Vienna was laid six years ago on the 330th anniversary of the battle. The unveiling of the monument was planned for 12 September 2018 on the 335th anniversary of the relief of Vienna.
However, last July, the new mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, announced that he was withdrawing from the project.
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It will stand in Kraków for a maximum of two weeks according to local authorities in the city. Later, it will move on to Nowy Sącz, Brzeg and Nysa, places that are connected with the life of the king, and possibly to Warsaw, where it would stand in front of the Royal Castle.
Zapart is determined that the monument will stand in Vienna: “Neither before nor now have we considered any other final location of the monument than Vienna. We believe that the worthiest place for the king is the Vienna Kahlenberg,” he said. (source)
I don’t have a problem with the monument.
The issue that I have with this is the timing and the context.
The reason why Poland survived the Islamic invasions of 1683 was indeed due to Polish military help. However, said Polish military help would not have happened were it not for the Catholic Faith, because it was Catholic people, including the Pope himself, who organized the Crusade (as it was called) against the Ottomans and who did it for the Church and the Faith against what were Islamic invaders in the true sense. This happened at a time when Europe was comparatively far more religious, especially in the ranks of the Church.
The situation today is very different. Europe is NOT Christian at all. Most of her people have apostatized, and Christianity is actively hated. Eastern Europe save Russia is an exception, yet those nations are rapidly secularizing and filled with the same problems that one finds in Western Europe. The Catholic Church only has strongholds in Poland and Lithuania, and yet among the younger generations the numbers of people who declare they have no religion has greatly increased. This does not look good for the future. Likewise, many of the Christians in Western and Central Europe (Eastern Europe does not have large numbers of any migrants at all save for Russia) are migrants or converts from the Semitic and Hamitic peoples of Africa and the Middle East. It is not the “native Europeans”, but rather the Congolese, Iraqis, Nigerians, Syrians, and other peoples who are keeping the churches regardless of denomination open. To the contrary, it is the same “natives” whose hatred for the “migrants” is rivaled only by their hatred of God and religion and in favor of nationalism and race worship.
All European nations have this problem, and it just is that Poland happens to have low instances of it comparatively speaking. However, it is certainly there and could become a major trend in the future if left unchecked.
Walid, Ted, and I have spent many years talking about the threat of Islam and how it needs to be confronted and stopped, and the consequences could be dire. We do this not because we support a political solution as our primary mode of operation, but rather because we genuinely believe in the truth of the Faith and that as Islam is a spiritual poison, it can only be cured by the proper spiritual antidote. The purpose of this is first not the “death of the sinner”, nor is it to say that military conflict must be ruled out, but to say that the first means by which Islam must be combated is by means of preaching the Gospel, returning the Western world to a state of good morals, striving to live the Catholic Faith in its fullness, and purging degeneracy from the people. This must be emphasized first and before any political answer because politics is just a reflection of the people in a society, and if the politics are rotten, it is likely because the people are rotten as well.
We don’t want to “kill Muslims”. Rather, we want to convert them because we want them to partake of the salvation that Christ has promised to those who believe in Him and follow Him. Our dislike of Islam is due to a love of the Gospel and a desire to see their salvation, and not for our own personal gain.
Unfortunately, we have pointed out that many people who claim to oppose Islam and will use Christian language or even claim to be a Christian reverse this order. Some do it out of misguided beliefs, and others do it because they are malicious, but it is always an error to place a political solution before a spiritual one, and especially one that elevates race, nation, or political party over the grace of God. God did not come to proclaim the “glory” of any race as much as he came to condemn any race, for there is only one “master race”, and that is one that is defined by faith in Christ and obedience to His commands. This is the true “chosen people”, which is made up of all races, tongues, and tribes.
The current “anti-Islam” movement in the West is veritably defined by this, for at the top of it, the people involved are not interested in evangelization, but about using Islam as a lever for political power.
Given how this is rising in Poland and the power of the Church is weakening, my concern is that this monument is not being erected because of an embrace of the Catholic Faith for moral right and a remembrance of history, but about promoting a particular political cause first that will eventually be stripped of its inherently Christian history and used to promote paganism by way of nationalist and racialist identitarianism.
It is always the things that look good that one must be most careful about, because a drop of poison in a gallon of milk makes the whole jug undrinkable.
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