POLAND needs saving from the “scourge” of secularism, and some daft Catholic priest hopes that the erection of a 187-ft statue of Jesus Â- the world’s tallest – will stem the rising tide of disbelief in his country.
Size matters: workmen prepare to drop Jesus' head onto the torso of the Polish statue, which is which is 42ft higher than its nearest rival, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
Said the Rev Sylwester Zawadzki, the priest who inspired the construction of the figure in Swiebodzin, a small western Poland town:
I hope this statue will become a remedy for this secularisation. I hope it will have a religious mission and not just bring tourists …The Holy Bible holds lots of examples of miracles that brought people back to Christianity again. This might happen again.
Yeah – and the Pope might embrace Pastafarianism.
Poland, according to this report, is still an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation, still conservative and still religious, especially when compared with its European neighbours. But supporters and critics of the Roman Catholic Church all acknowledge that the society is changing. They agree that church representatives in Poland have lost authority and credibility, and that much of the population is moving toward a more secular view of life, one with a greater separation between church and state, and a rejection of church mandates on individual morality.
Szymon Holownia, is the programme director for Religia TV, a relatively new station that aims to convince Poles that faith can and should be relevant in modern life. So it features show like cooking lessons delivered by a nun. That should do the trick, eh? Holownia said:
We are considered the European museum of Catholicism, but let me tell you we are no longer. The relationship between faith and state is changing; it is changing dramatically in Poland. It is really huge. Twenty years of freedom and religion is evaporating. This is the crisis of Christianity in Poland.
Church supporters said the trend was evident in the numbers: 95 percent of Poles identify themselves as Catholic, but only 41 percent attend Sunday Mass regularly. In the big cities of Warsaw and Krakow, only about 20 percent attend Mass regularly on Sundays, according to the Institute of Statistics of the Church.
Supporters of the church also said that the numbers dropped far below the 41 percent when it came to accepting moral mandates about issues like divorce and in vitro fertilization, both of which the church opposes and a majority of people appear to support.
Said Tomasz Terlikowski, editor of Fronda, a conservative Catholic magazine, who was upset with what he called the lack of effective church leadership against the secular tide:
It seems we are Catholics in a cultural way; we identify as Catholic, but do not attend church.
Terlikowski said he was astounded when he heard that church leaders in Poland were so frustrated with what was being said about the church in the national newspapers that they ordered their staff members to stop bringing them the papers.
Poles cite a wide variety of reasons for the church’s declining influence. They say the dynamic gained momentum after the death in 2005 of the hugely popular Pope John Paul II, whose leadership is credited with helping bring down the Iron Curtain.
Church critics and supporters said that the trend was partly an expression of disgust with the clergy for taking sides in recent political battles, and partly the influence of thousands of Poles who had returned home after working and studying in the more secular societies in the West.
But they also said there was a strong anti-clerical movement in Poland, one that was unique to this nation and not tied to the sex scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church elsewhere. It is more closely linked to an almost genetic predisposition to rebel against authority, many people here said, as much as the church’s often heavy-handed intervention in national politics and debates over social issues, particularly in vitro fertilization.
Said Pawel Spiewak, a sociologist at the University of Warsaw:
I think most people would say their priest is a drunkard, that he is corrupt, that he takes too much money from weddings, that he bought himself a fancy car.
Anti-church sentiment has run so hot that one of the most popular politicians in the country, Janusz Palikot, started a political party based largely on an anti-clerical platform. He said that the national divide tended to be generational, with older citizens more closely aligned with the church, but that it was impossible to discern distinct boundaries.
I believe that those anti-clerical and anti-Catholic feelings in society are deeper than it seems, especially in the little towns. People will not leave the church, but their tendency to disagree with the church has become more apparent.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
December 15th, 2010 at 9:15 am
So if we erect the worlds biggest dildo, will we all get lucky?
December 15th, 2010 at 9:18 am
One of the things that I detest about religion (and the list seems to grow daily) is the bizarre need to push its beliefs down everyones throats. I have often felt that it is a subconscious way to shore up their own disbelief i.e. ‘if everyone believes then it must be right.’
Which brings me to this eyesore. Why so big? Why at all? It would be interesting to see how many people who live in this town were actually asked if they wanted it. I suspect it was placed there without a single thought about who may have to live with it.
December 15th, 2010 at 9:40 am
“The Holy Bible holds lots of examples of miracles that brought people back to Christianity again. This might happen again.”
As far as I’m aware, the holy bible contains no mention of christianity whatsoever.
I also note that they’ve gone for the authentic Ted Neely-alike handsome Aryan type face look. Why can’t these modern christians get it through their thick heads that if he ever existed, jesus would have looked like a typical Middle-Eastern type.
December 15th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Must have cost a small fortune. Still, serves them right for falling for it. Numpties.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:10 am
One of the things that I’ve gathered in conversations with guest-workers from Poland and surrounding countries is that, while the obvious motivation for coming here is well paid work, another is to be free of traditional communities run by idiot priests. Now they’re going home again, with money put aside to set themselves up and their elders no longer economically dominant, I think those priests will be shoved aside and the communities are going to change.
Another thing – we really ought to nail this myth of Catholicism helping bring down the Iron Curtain, especially in Poland. The only reason campaigners for change met in churches is they were the only largish meeting spaces not run by the Stalinist state. And in Romania, where police attempts to storm such meetings in Transylvanian Lutheran churches kicked off the 1989 revolution, one priest involved told me bluntly a few years back that Western evangelicals and ‘religious charities’ like Samaritans Purse are causing more damage than Ceacescu ever did. Yes, there is a tradition of religious dissent over there, not far removed from the type of liberal UK Christians you got round, say, CND or the miners strike in the 1980s, but it has little or nothing to do with the Stalinists in dog collars mentality of the Catholic political lobby in Poland or orthodox churches elsewhere out that way.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Credit where it’s due, it’ll save them 33% on the cost of future social policies and provide +1 culture per turn in the city where it’s built.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:24 am
How come we atheists don’t get a big statue, huh? Oh, maybe it’s because we don’t need one.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Imagine what all the resources (time, money, labour, ingenuity) could have achieved for humanity in the last few millennia had they not been wasted on fantasy. If scientific thinking wasn’t stifled by superstition, even in the present.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:13 am
So rather than spend money helping the poor and needy, the catholics waste money on this revolting statue. Religion really is stupid.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:33 am
What spend money on the poor, that would be against all catholic teachings. The Jesus face looks a bit like a young Kirk Douglas. This will certainly have the ladies swooning.
December 15th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Exactly how will this prevent people from thinking?
December 15th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@Think
By creating a situation that the god is in control and knows everything that one should think about. All you now have to do is follow what the priest cast says and you are okay.
and to misquote Penn “Jesus, never was that big”
December 15th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
We should construct a 190 ft statue of Christopher Hitchens to do battle with it.
December 15th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Yet another graven image of Zeus?? Why doesn’t anyone ever represent Jesus as the middle-eastern man that such a person would have been?
Oh wait, these are statues being put up by westernised Christianity! Answered my own question…
December 15th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Look more closely and you’ll find that it’s all a huge con – this has nothing to do with the ‘fisher of men’, but is in fact a statue celebrating that favourite Polish pastime, angling.
‘It was this big, honest.’
December 15th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
So, no matter how fucking idiotic the concept, people will believe it if you shout loud enough?
Isn’t there something in the “How To Please The Big Sky Fairy Handbook” that states that the Supreme Pixie disapproves of idolatry?
And if Jesus existed (debatable) he’d have been 1.50m tall, dark-skinned, with halitosis that could stun a horse – not this bejewelled Nordic super-giant. Sigh.
December 15th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Do you think there is a bit of over compensation going on here………….?
December 15th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Well, it’s a step up from executing the writers, I suppose. Same ‘shoot the messenger’ mentality, though. And they wonder why they’re not being taken seriously…
December 15th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
I think it looks more like John the Baptist.
December 15th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
remigius:
Nah, surely not? John the Baptist would’ve been a Semite, just like Chris’s description of Jesus. This chap looks more like King Canute.
December 15th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Daz, we history types prefer to call him King Cnut. And yes you are right, it does look like a big Cnut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut_the_Great
December 15th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I am reminded of two things here. Michael Jackson promoting ‘History’ by sailing a giant statue of himself down the Thames and the Simpsons episode ‘Marge vs the Monorail’. Regarding the latter, I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut a lot of corners as apparently it cost under £900.000 when you would expect millions. Still, what a beautiful use of money whilst the planet is in financial turmoil.
December 15th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I’m studying to be a structural engineer, and have some idea of what’s involved in erecting something that large. It’s assembled around a truss frame, probably calculated using design software running on a reasonably powerful computer. The Jesus’ head and other bits are precast concrete, probably designed on computer too. It wouldn’t surprise me if the engineers involved were atheists, since none of this requires faith of any sort – except giving away your money for such a monstrosity.
December 15th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Maybe we could get the guys from behemoth to play a show near it and the vibrations could bring the whole thing toppling down but until then it is high enough for a BASE jump……
December 15th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Remember when we put some adverts on buses, the religiots slammed “What a waste of money of those atheists, this is outrageous!”? However, when they spend much more money (and probably state sponsored) in a folly like this, they smugly say “It is extremely necessary we do this to reaffirm the meaning of our religion”. Hypocrites, that’s it – but not that I would expect anything from them but double standards. Say what they want, but at least our adverts were polite and ran for just a month – while this ill-conceived monstrosity will be around spreading ugliness for decades to come.
December 15th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
This is one of those rare occasions where it’s not the size but what you do with it that counts. Since they won’t be doing anything new with it the outcome will be the same
December 15th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I wonder if they will be installing a lightening rod on it?
December 15th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Stoneyground,
Ohio reference, right?
This must have cost a fraction of the price, plus it gives one an appetite.
http://www.lotusgeek.com/Sapph...../FSM_1.jpg
December 15th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
I think that they should leave the head off!!!! A monument to a myth!!!
December 15th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
What to do? Should we house teenage runaway hookers, or the mentally ill or should we waste hundreds of thousands of dollars building the world’s largest misrepresentation of a caucasion jesus? Tough question.
NeoWolfe
December 16th, 2010 at 5:43 am
It’s hard to believe 95% of Poland it still Catholic, but then it’s a Catholic poll, so what else would you expect the results to be? I would have thought they would have thrown the Catholic church out after what Hitler did to Poland with the full support of the church and Pope Pious behind him. But then Hitler didn’t really do anything much different than the Catholic church ever did, starting with the fall of the Roman Empire!
December 16th, 2010 at 11:09 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ent.....243339.stm
Back to the drawing board!
December 16th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
For those wanting a suitable “atheist” sculpture:
http://www.leslieforman.com/wp.....statue.jpg
(Mongolia)
December 17th, 2010 at 2:37 am
This just shows evolution to be true, we are getting smarter, weeding out all this bullshit religious crap.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:01 am
It’s really a mobile phone tower.
December 17th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
How about a huge statue of Richard Dawkins? Where could it be put?
———————————————————
Christ said that many are called, but few are chosen.
So why are they worried about “shrinkage”?
December 18th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
@edwords, I don’t think such a statue would be structurally sound, our good Professor’s inflated ego makes his head too large to support in concrete form!
I actually like this Polish Jesus design though, it’s always interesting to see which one people go with. Is it the Bee Gee Jesus? The meek and mild carpenter? The Mel Gibson gorefest Jesus in agony? Its rare, but my personal favorite is Angry Jesus chasing people out of the temple, but I don’t think erecting a giant angry scarecrow visually telling you to get the fuck out would do much for tourism.
Fuck all of the above though, in Poland, Jesus is the guy from the Burger King adverts!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF86Rb-uFNE
December 19th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Perhaps a Christopher Hitchens – inside Westminster Abbey!
So true, Edwords. “Are there few that be saved?”. Jesus said that his followers would be a tiny number – like the fabled Jewish “remnant” – who would be despised and persecuted, living as pilgrims and strangers on this earth, without power or influence, their only reward being in Heaven. Just look at The Pope!