Poland may be getting a new head of state 

GO INTO ANY CORNER bar in the US and ask the patrons who is really in charge of America, you’ll likely receive a list of the usual suspects in response: the banks, the liberals, the military-industrial complex, the UN, the Trilateral Commission, the gay people, or that old standby, the Jews. Go into your local “Christian” fitness club or megachurch, however, and you may learn that Jesus is the genuine ruler of America, hindered only in his good works by the pernicious influence of the devil (abetted by the liberals, the gay people, etc.). Strangely, though, no one ever suggests hiring the Prince of Peace directly, with people instead preferring to vote for Sarah Palin or Christine O’Donnell to do His holy work. But ask around on the streets of Warsaw and Krakow these days and you’ll get an even more definite response: regardless of who is pullling the strings, Jesus himself should be placed in charge of Poland. In fact, they might tell you, he should be anointed king.

Back in 2006, forty-six members of Poland’s 460-member parliament, representing a group calling itself the “Movement for the Sovereignty of the Polish People,” introduced a resolution calling for Jesus Christ to be proclaimed king of Poland to save the country from terminal economic decline and looming moral bankruptcy. The group refers to historical precedents: during the “Deluge” in 1656, when Swedish, Russian, and Brandenburg soldiers occupied the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and all appeared to be lost, King John II Casimir travelled to Lwów Cathedral and proclaimed the Virgin Mary “The Queen of the Polish Crown and other of his countries,” thus saving the day for the kingdom. In 1832, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, popularized the notion that Poland was “the Christ of nations” that had been crucified in the cause of rightenousness.

In the 1930s, the devoutly Catholic nurse Rozalia Celakówna (1901-44), who cared for and prayed with prostitutes in an STD clinic in Krakow, experienced a series of visions in which Poles were called upon to ask forgiveness for their sins and to proclaim Jesus the king of Poland in order to avoid a terrible war. In February 1939 Jesus Himself told Rozalia:

But the Polish government remained unmoved and we all know how that worked out. Sister Celakówna is currently undergoing beatification in the Vatican.

In September of this year, up to three thousand demonstrators hit the streets of Warsaw demanding a referendum on Jesus' coronation. Praying and singing, the activists carried Jesus posters from the parliament to the presidential palace. Alongside Polish flags they also carried blue EU flags with images of the Virgin Mary placed at the center of the circle of twelve stars. (In fact, the design of the EU flag was inspired by Mary’s crown of stars as described in the Book of Revelations.) Similar demonstrations have taken place in other major Polish cities.

 
The Catholic origins of the EU flag:
"A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a
crown of twelve stars" (Revelation 12:1)

What policy changes do the organizers expect from the new head of state? According to the 2006 parliamentary resolution, the “Movement for the Sovereignty of the Polish People” believe that crowing Jesus king will help Poles reconnect with their Catholic roots. With Jesus in the driver’s seat, so to speak, Poland – which Pope John Paul II had said was “materially poor but spiritually rich” –could become a driving force in the EU and “save Europe from the abyss of unbelief and immorality.” They likely also hope to draw upon the King of Kings’ unique moral authority as they push through conservative policies on abortion, gay marriage, and other issues.

  
Campaigning for Jesus in Warsaw in September
(Source: Die Welt)   

While the movement has attracted support from a remarkable ten percent of the parliament, neither the country’s political elite nor the Roman Catholic Church are particularly impressed by the idea. In late October Archbishop Jozef Michalik of the Polish Bishop’s Conference poured cold water on Christ's candidacy, stating that Jesus’ kingdom “is not of this world.”   

You might think that now is as good a time as any for Jesus to make a terrestrial comeback. And yet the Lord of Lords has been maintaing an eerie silence regarding his own plans for the future. But whether or not the Poles crown Jesus king, there is no doubt that the Good Shepherd is boss in this profoundly religious country: the small town of Swiebodzin in western Poland is currently completing the world’s largest Jesus statue. The statue stands thirty meters tall atop a sixteen-meter plinth, making it nine meters higher than the current record holder, Bolivia’s “Cristo de la Concodia” statue, let alone the iconic “Christ the Redeemer” in Rio de Janeiro. Ostensibly being built in thanks to God, the figure, due for completion next month, likely won’t hurt tourism. As a local official told the press, “If we had opened a racetrack or a golf course here, tourists would have come only for the season. But with a statue of Jesus the season will last the whole year.” So praise the Lord and pass the pierogi!

 
Europe's newest tourist hotspot:
The amazing Jesus of Swiebodzin
(Source: telegraph.co.uk)