Republic of Poland a common good for all faiths - President
The Republic of Poland was, is and will be the common good of all Polish people regardless of their faith, President Andrzej Duda said Friday at celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
"The Republic was, is and, I strongly believe, will always be the common good of all Polish people - Catholics, Protestants and the faithful of other denominations", Duda said in Warsaw's Royal Castle.
Duda recalled the 1573 Warsaw Confederation (see: NOTE 1), which introduced religious freedom in Poland (becoming the first such legal act in Europe - PAP). President stressed that the ideas underpinning the document had laid the groundwork for the Polish people's unity, upheld over and above religious differences in the subsequent centuries.
"The community that binds us is founded upon the Warsaw Confederation passed by the Sejm in 1573, which guaranteed equality and freedom of conscience for Polish people of different faiths. Over the centuries, this historic act carried the ever-valid message about the equality of citizens co-forming the political nation, regardless of their religious or ideological differences", Duda said.
Celebrations of the 500th Reformation anniversary are taking place in Warsaw. They began on October 26 and will run until 29. Observances precede the symbolic date of October 31, the day in 1517 that Martin Luther proclaimed his famous 95 Theses in Wittenberg, thus starting the Reformation. (PAP)
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NOTE 1: The January 28, 1573's Warsaw Confederation was Europe's first legal act ensuring religious freedom. The confederation, whose rulings extended over the noble class and other free citizens in the then Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (see: NOTE 2), is considered by historians to mark the beginning of religious tolerance in the country. The act helped make Poland a haven for persecuted religious minorities of other countries, especially during the Thirty Years' War.
NOTE 2: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a 16th-18th century Polish-Lithuanian state composed of the Crown - Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and considered a precursor to modern democratic systems such as federation or constitutional monarchy. The Commonwealth was a dual state ruled by one monarch, who was simultaneously King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
The Commonwealth was one of the biggest countries in 16th/17th-century Europe, at its peak spanning about 1.2 million km2 and with a multi-ethnic population of about 11 million. It was formally established by the Union of Lublin in July 1569. (PAP)
