Tadeusz Rydzyk

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"Father Director" Tadeusz Rydzyk
"Father Director" Tadeusz Rydzyk

The Reverend Tadeusz Rydzyk (pronounced [taˈdɛuʂ ˈrɨʣɨk]), also known as Father Director and Father Foundator (Polish: Ojciec Dyrektor, Ojciec Założyciel), born May 3, 1945 in Olkusz, is an influential Roman Catholic priest and Redemptorist, creator and head of the controversial Radio Maryja station, and a grand leader of the Radio Maryja Family's nationalistic-clerical movement in Poland. Although Rydzyk holds a position of authority, his status among the Catholic clergy is that of an ordinary priest.

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[edit] Life and Career

Tadeusz Rydzyk spent his childhood in Olkusz. He studied at the Higher Spiritual Seminar of Redemptorists in Tuchow, and later at the Catholic Theology Academy in Warsaw. He was ordained a priest in 1971 and taught religion in Torun, Szczecinek and Krakow. In 1986 Rydzyk left for Germany where he was involved with a xenophobic radio station Radio Maria International in Balderschwang (later closed by the Catholic Church). His tenure in Germany was opposed by the Church, but he remained abroad for 5 years.

Following his return to Poland in 1991, the Reverend Rydzyk made a spectacular career. He started Radio Maryja, a radio station marked by arousing controversies. He initiated the nationalist newspaper Nasz Dziennik ('Our Daily') and the television station Trwam ('I Persist'). "Father Director" has gathered a large group of committed followers, known as the Radio Maryja Family, to many of which he is an unquestionable charismatic authority.[1]

[edit] Teachings

Tadeusz Rydzyk and his media outlets have often been blamed for promoting xenophobia and antisemitism, both from critics inside and outside of Poland. He also opened The College of Social and Media Culture in Toruń, in which he educates future Polish journalists in the spirit of his socio-political views. On 9th of July 2007 the Wprost magazine published part of a lecture given by Rydzyk in which he called the president's wife Maria Kaczyńska a witch who should euthanize herself. He also claimed that the president had cheated him. [2]. Rydzyk refused to apologize saying that the sound recording was "a manipulation" and a result of a "fight of spirits". The official Vatican web page states that Rydzyk's radio station "became much more involved in spreading risky politics than in spreading the Gospel."[3]

"Father Director" applied for the funds of the European Union alloted to boost Polish businesses and researchers from 2007-2013 on the grounds that his school is an "incubator for modern technology in the service of civil society" [4][5], cited after the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.

[edit] Active Politics

Rydzyk and his team actively supported the victorious Law and Justice party during the 2005 election. [6] Asked whether Tadeusz Rydzyk would form a political party, bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, the former secretary general of the Episcopate of Poland, replied that he could not imagine a priest starting a political organization.[7].

When Poland's political parties, Self-Defence, League of Polish Families, and Law and Justice parties agreed to a "stabilization pact", as the basis of their "governing coalition" agreement, the only media outlets allowed to witness the event were those run by the Father Director.

In January 2006, a journalist from the Polish tabloid Fakt phoned the minister for agriculture Krzysztof Jurgiel, pretending to be Rydzyk's assistant, and told Jurgiel that Father Director's car had broken down. The minister immediately sent a government limousine for Rydzyk. The reporter later said he wanted to ascertain the degree of Rydzyk's influence in the government.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Phenomenon of Radio Virgin Mary
  2. ^ Listen in Polish here
  3. ^ [1]l
  4. ^ Anti-EU Polish Catholic radio station seeks EU funds: report — EUbusiness.com - business, legal and economic news and information from the European Union
  5. ^ EC questions decision to give EU funds to Rydzyk school
  6. ^ "LETTER FROM POLAND; Differing Treatment of Religious Slurs Raises an Old Issue, The New York Times, May 3, 2006. Accessed April 4, 2008.
  7. ^ Warsaw Voice - Wałęsa at War

[edit] See also