Polish bishops urge Catholic media not to be political instruments

Published: 2006-02-23

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish bishops urged their country's largest Catholic radio and TV stations to respect church teaching and told them not to be used as political tools. "Politicians have a natural right to use the mass media -- but this doesn't mean media run by church institutions can let themselves be used instrumentally by some political option," the bishops' conference said in a letter to the provincial of the Redemptorist order, which owns the stations. "We feel a duty to remind you the mission Christ bequeathed the church wasn't a political, economic or social one. The purpose he assigned it was religious." In the letter, published Feb. 15 by a Catholic online agency, www.wiara.pl, the bishops said they had been concerned about Radio Maryja and TV Trwam's live coverage of a Feb. 2 meeting in which Poland's governing Law and Justice Party signed a "stability pact" with two right-wing groups. Covering the political acts "meant the church was regarded as one-sidedly supporting a single political party," the bishops said in the letter that was also printed in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

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