I blog from Krakow, site of the bishopric of Karol Wojtyla prior to his elevation to the papacy. Walking the streets of Krakow one glimpses European peculiarities: nuns in habits and collared priests, religious books in store windows, pictures of the old and new popes, and overflowing churches. I celebrated mass at one of these overflowing churches today--and found myself with neither pew nor kneeler.

Krakow once stood in the heart of Christendom. Krakow now stands as an outpost of Christendom, and it never moved--the world around it did. The term Europe was once synonymous with Christendom. Even something as basic as the national flags--check out the (ironic) flags of any Scandinavian nation-- of Europe bear this out. Now Europe is at best indifferent and at worst hostile to the faith that provided its identity. The European Union's proposed constitution even refused to mention the continent's longtime uniting characteristic: Christianity.

With more than half of its people attending church at least once per week, Poland is one of the world's most devoutly Catholic nations. By way of comparison, regular churchgoers in neighboring Belarus (6 percent) and Czech Republic (14 percent) constitute a tiny fragment of the population. Five years ago, I went to mass in Prague in an architecturally stunning church that resembles many of the churches of Krakow. The similarities stopped there: in the Czech Republic, a handful of pensioners attended mass in the near-empty church; in Poland, people of all ages packed the church on a Saturday.

Catholicism is a resilient faith. In Poland, it endured the attacks of the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the murderous ideologies of that bloodiest of centuries. Catholic Poles have lived under Romanovs, Hapsburgs, Nazis, Communists, and other lords temporal. Throughout, their lord spiritual has remained unchanged.

Krakow is lovely, I spent a day there once. With a lofty castle in the downtown.

Except that increased prosperity and consumption, as well as integration in the EU, is eroding Poland's culture and morals. JPII warned his countrymen of the dangers of materialism on several occasions. But hopefully they will persevere and not give in fully to western decadence.

Good post, although I'd take exception to labeling Protestantism as an attack upon Catholicism. A critique and a challenge, yes, but one rooted in the desire for scriptural fidelity. The Reformers sought to purify the Church of corrupt extrabiblical teachings and of corrupt financial practices (selling of indulgences), to purify the bride of Christ, not to scatter her to the wind.

But all the same, the testimony of the faith of the Polish Catholics is a praiseworthy matter.

"The Reformers sought to purify the Church of corrupt extrabiblical teachings ..., to purify the bride of Christ, not to scatter her to the wind."

That extrabibilical teachings are, ipso fact, corrupt is incoherent. And a practical consequence of that incoherence is to make every Protestant a denomination unto themselves, to scatter the Church (or at least a large portion of it) to the wind.