You'll recall JP2 saying of the three great monotheistic faiths
Yes, and a very admirable attempt at reconciliation between these religions.
But how did the Jews and Muslims respond to his opinion? Did they agree? Sure there were various diplomatic and interfaith exchanges at the time. But these were done at a high level and were by and large just formal pleasantries that one would expect. In other words, they were ineffective gestures.
Indeed, given the very open and repeated hostilities one can read over the years by certain posters here on PF regarding the RCC (particularly in Poland) it is rest assured that they are not even remotely interested in finding common ground and extending an olive branch. For them Christianity is public enemy number one with Islam being public enemy number two. And Judaism? Well, if they are part of any conversation it is always some "feel-good" story or yet another hackneyed tale of woe.
Unfortunately neither of these three belief systems will even truly tolerate each other. They are not designed to and can only co-exist when they have no power over each other in society. And that is not necessarily a good thing either.
Some (particularly outsiders) have written about Poland and point only to it's 16th - 17th century era as being the start of Poland.
They love to claim that modern Poland is "artificial" in its homogeneity because the first and second republics were so diverse that Poles eventually became at most only two-thirds of the population within its official borders.
These so-called experts (multiculturalist propagandists actually) completely ignore Polish history prior to 1569 and especially before 966. While extolling some virtuousness about Poland being a polyglot, multi-faith, multi-ethnic society they refuse to point out that the vast majority of the population lived apart from each other, were not wealthy, and most did not have any rights when it came to deciding laws, electing officials, etc. In other words, they were disenfranchised so they were easy to control.
Some falsely claim too that there was a great mixing of the population. But this can't be true apart from some commerce. Otherwise the whole notion of Jews having some kind of exclusive DNA all to themselves would long have been bred out if it even exited in the first place. A vastly mixed population would have found it impossible to hold any enmity towards each other. And if that were the case then how could any of the usual suspects on PF use their stock-in-trade lies about Poles being willing and eager pogromists in one era and then Nazi collaborators in another? A mixed population would also be incapable of becoming completely homogenous again.
And what the so-called experts also refuse to acknowledge is that having all these disparate groups living within the same territory made it extremely easy for outside powers to invade and partition Poland many, many times over the centuries.
But would it be different in the future? Not just within say a decade or two but a century or more from now. A Poland where now all citizens have rights to work, vote, hold elected office, and lobby for and enact laws just like they do today.
So then, how much of Poland's past and present would be preserved if ethnic Poles effectively became a minority in Poland? Would a new majority of those living in a future Poland but whose heritage and religious beliefs are different and lie outside of Poland truly care about maintaining and restoring Poland's inheritance such as palaces, Christian places of worship and Christian burial sites? Remember that human behavior is very slow to change. So if you need an answer to this just look at today and see how well such similar things of European origin are cared for in places like the Middle East and Africa. You can start a searching using the terms "price tag attack" and "monastery"; or "roman ruins" and "ISIS"; or "war grave" and "Libya" and "militants". The photos themselves will tell you all you need to know.
Would the Polish flag and bunting of its colors still be permitted for public display or would it be regarded as (gasp!) "nationalistic" and shunned so as not to offend the "cultural sensitivities" of other segments in society as they do today with the flags in PC correction camps such as France, Britain and Sweden?
How much would the Polish language change assuming it doesn't wither away in favor of another lingua franca imposed perhaps at the EU level in order to accommodate diversity and immigration quotas?
And how much personal pride would ethnic Polish children have in themselves and their true heritage if, as seen in other Western countries today, they are only taught to respect, value and preserve the religions, customs and cultures of everyone but their own?
