Sister Małgorzata Chmielewska: We Must Not Remain Silent | 11th Festival of Protestant Culture

Sister Małgorzata Chmielewska: We Must Not Remain Silent | 11th Festival of Protestant Culture

• 0:12 Ladies and Gentlemen, this award means a great deal to me.
• 0:12 Ladies and Gentlemen, this award means a great deal to me.
• 0:17 Our community has received many awards over the years.
• 0:22 But this one, I would say, belongs in the top three.
• 0:27 The first was the Totus Award, the second – Rev. Tischner Award,
• 0:32 and now – this one.
• 0:38 Why? Because it connects us. What was said here about the second laureate,
• 0:45 and what the Bishop mentioned just a moment ago – I believe it’s all true.
• 0:51 We live in difficult times.
• 0:55 There have never been “good” times – that’s an illusion.
• 1:02 But we live in an era where the danger
• 1:08 of what Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced
• 1:14 is frighteningly real. It is already happening.
• 1:17 And we, as followers of Christ and as decent human beings,
• 1:25 must not stay silent – and we must not stop acting wherever we are.
• 1:31 Our community is, in a way, ecumenical – we even have a small Orthodox branch.
• 1:42 For fifty years now, our community has tried to gather together
• 1:53 what most deeply pains God. That is my profound conviction.
• 1:59 Hatred divides; God did not create us to harm one another.
• 2:15 And at the same time – the fact that I am here, that I could come,
• 2:24 that I have two hands, two legs, and still a bit of reason –
• 2:29 that I was able to study, that I speak a few languages –
• 2:34 that is not my merit, it is my task.
• 2:40 I believe our role, as people and as followers of Christ, is a task – the task of shaping the world
• 2:53 as God created it and as He intended it to be.
• 3:00 That is all we can do – and all that Bonhoeffer himself embodied,
• 3:07 even unto martyrdom.
• 3:18 He was one of those who sacrificed their lives for truth, love, honesty, justice, and peace.
• 3:25 And perhaps it sounds odd – for who am I, living in a small village
• 3:35 in the Świętokrzyskie region
• 3:39 with thirty homeless people – Poles, and also two refugees from Nigeria, Protestants,
• 3:49 and Ukrainian women with children – and yet what pains me deeply,
• 3:55 and what I say to all of us, including myself, is this: why did we, as Christians,
• 4:06 not speak out – not as politicians, but as disciples of Christ –
• 4:13 when people with disabilities protested, or when mothers and children,
• 4:19 refugees from Ukraine, were denied the right to live with dignity in our country?
• 4:28 These are people who have endured terrible suffering – and many others still do.
• 4:33 Let my inner plea be this: may the patron of today’s ceremony
• 4:41 remind each of us – myself above all –
• 4:46 that we must not stay silent and we must not cease to act. We must not be afraid –
• 4:56 even when we are afraid, for fear is human, but we must not be afraid.
• 5:01 And I wish that courage for myself too – because there are times
• 5:06 when one simply has had enough,
• 5:08 when one must fight again and again, facing insults and hostility from every side –
• 5:16 often, sadly, from our own "Christian brothers and sisters".
• 5:23 But that is another matter – true followers of Christ neither act nor speak that way.
• 5:32 What we need now, and will need even more in this world of ours, is courage.
• 5:39 May He — the One who, I believe, is now on the other side,
• 5:42 together with thousands of the righteous — may He support us in this.
• 5:49 I want to thank all of you deeply. This award is also a great honour
• 5:52 for my co-workers.
• 5:54 One of the youngest is here with us. She was born in our community —
• 6:00 her mother was one of the founders.
• 6:03 Today she runs a home for the homeless in the Świętokrzyskie region.
• 6:08 So in a way, it’s a bit like a “hereditary mafia” — but not only that.
• 6:14 We have over sixty staff members from outside the community,
• 6:18 so it is not a family business.
• 6:20 Although some of our foster and biological children, and families within the community,
• 6:27 have chosen to continue this path we began many years ago.
• 6:31 I thank you all profoundly and express my deepest respect
• 6:37 to everyone who keeps alive the memory of a man
• 6:41 who gave his life for truth, freedom, and justice —
• 6:47 and who also defended the weakest.
• 6:53 As was mentioned, Hitlerism meant not only the killing
• 6:57 of those considered inferior, but also of people
• 7:01 with disabilities, the weak, and the mentally ill.
• 7:05 And, ladies and gentlemen, this is not something far away from us.
• 7:09 Believe me — it is closer than we think.
• 7:12 Thank you.