When it was announced that American pop-singer Madonna would be performing in Warsaw’s Bemowo Airport on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the American TFP joined the firestorm of protest sweeping Poland.
Madonna “Sticky & Sweet” tour is causing a stir because August 15 is not just any Catholic feast day or Polish national holiday. It is the day when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arrive at the foot of Our Lady of Czestochowa shrine at Jasna Gora after many of them spend weeks of pilgrimages on foot from all around the country.
Many see the choice of this special day as a provocation. It only adds to the controversy surrounding the 50-year-old singer who has long mixed blasphemy with sexual themes. Even if the event were to be on another day, Madonna’s message is clearly offensive to Poles. In 2006, she offended Poles by having her face appear on the cover of the Polish magazine, “Machina,” parodying Our Lady of Czestochowa. Promotion material for the present tour claims: “There is no room for two queens in Poland.”
The American TFP is joining with other organizations in Poland in protesting the event. It is sponsoring an email protest campaign to Poland’s Minister of the Interior asking him to prevent the concert that is scheduled to be held at the publicly-owned Benowo Airport. The email notes that the event does not promote the common good and that since its promoters have shown that they intend to offend the religious sentiment of Polish Catholics, it is a violation of Article 196 of the Polish Criminal Code.
Numerous Catholic groups are getting involved in the protest. The American TFP hopes that Catholics all over the world will join in. One does not have to be Polish to defend the Blessed Mother. If enough Catholics from all over the world lodge their protest, the promoters of this show will find out that there is indeed no room for two queens in Poland. This is only one queen in Poland and her name is Mary, the Mother of God.