The Temple of Divine Providence, the Presidential Palace, and Marshal Piłsudski Square – these are the main venues for Saturday's Independence Day celebrations in Warsaw. The highest-ranking state officials, including the Marshal of the Sejm, Marek Kuchciński, paid tribute to the founding fathers of the free Polish state, which returned to the map of Europe a century ago. “By heroism, love for the homeland, blood, prayer and wisdom, 99 years ago Poles regained their freedom. We love and value it like few countries in the world. It's a beautiful holiday, let's show respect to our Poland and let's respect ourselves for it,' Marek Kuchciński wrote on Twitter, announcing the celebrations. – We must not forget that independence is not given once and for all. In the political process, the most important thing is to strengthen it, President Andrzej Duda said during the celebrations.
Before noon, a Mass for the Fatherland was celebrated at the Temple of Divine Providence, fulfilling a commitment made by the Great Sejm, and presided over by Warsaw Metropolitan Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz. On the part of the Sejm authorities, it was attended by Marshal Marek Kuchcinski and Deputy Marshal Malgorzata Kidawa-Błońska. Prior to the solemn Mass at the Pantheon of Great Poles, Marek Kuchciński paid tribute to the memory of Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last Polish president in exile, who was laid to rest there, as well as all the victims of the Smolensk catastrophe.
- Building a community is a fundamental task for the present and future as well," said Field Bishop of the Polish Army Jozef Guzdek in his homily delivered during a Mass at the Temple of Divine Providence. - It is necessary to consistently remove what divides and multiply what unites the community. What is needed is solidarity, humility, mutual trust, responsibility for every word spoken, mutual respect and service to the truth," the hierarch said. He stressed that community is the key word for understanding the phenomenon of the rebirth of independent Poland. - Just as privatization and division caused the collapse of the Polish state, so the unification of the forces of the entire nation around the idea of independence led to its resurrection, he recalled.
As part of the National Independence Day celebrations in Warsaw, Sejm Speaker Marek Kuchcinski also laid a wreath in front of the monument to Marshal Józef Piłsudski at the Belvedere. He also took part in a ceremony in which President Andrzej Duda presented state decorations to deserving individuals. The recipients included actor Franciszek Pieczka, theologian and publicist Father Jacek Salij, columnist and reporter Jerzy Jachowicz, and athlete and Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski.
text: Chancellery of the Sejm
photo: Paweł Kula, Krzysztof Białoskórski, Rafał Zambrzycki
