- Tadeusz Rydzyk
The Reverend Tadeusz Rydzyk (pronounced|taˈdɛuʂ ˈrɨʣɨk), also known as Father Director and Father Foundator (Polish: "Ojciec Dyrektor, Ojciec Założyciel"),Fact|date=July 2008 born May 3, 1945 in
Olkusz , Poland, Fact|date=July 2008 is an influentialRoman Catholic priest andRedemptorist , creator and head of the controversial Radio Maryja station, and a grand leader of theRadio Maryja Family 's conservative movement inPoland .Fact|date=July 2008 Although Rydzyk holds a position of authority, his status among the Catholic clergy is that of an ordinary priest.Fact|date=July 2008Life and career
Tadeusz Rydzyk spent his childhood in Olkusz.Fact|date=July 2008 He studied at the Higher Spiritual Seminar of Redemptorists in
Tuchów , and later at the Catholic Theology Academy inWarsaw .Fact|date=July 2008 He was ordained a priest in 1971 and taught religion inToruń ,Szczecinek andKraków .Fact|date=July 2008 In 1986 Rydzyk left for Germany where he was involved with axenophobic radio station "Radio Maria International in Balderschwang" (later closed by the Catholic Church).Fact|date=July 2008 His tenure in Germany was opposed by the Church, but he remained abroad for 5 years.Fact|date=July 2008Following his return to Poland in 1991, Tadeusz 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. These people are nicknamed by Poles the 'moherowe beretki' or 'mohair berets' as a high proportion of Radio Maryja listeners and Rydzyk followers tend to be older women. [cite web |url=http://www.radiomaryja.pl.eu.org/arch/blaszczyk.html |title=Phenomenon of Radio Virgin Mary |accessdate=2008-07-14 |last=Blaszczyk |first=Olga]Teachings
Tadeusz Rydzyk and his independent media creations have made many critics mainly among left-wing parties and the post-communist controlled major media (like the daily "Gazeta Wyborcza"). The criticim accuses the Fr Rydzyk's media of alleged xenophobia and antisemitism, both by 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 Catholic and Polish values. One of the examples of many persistent attacks on father Rydzyk is an article on 9 July 2007 where "Wprost " magazine published part of a lecture allegedly given by Rydzyk in which he called the president's wifeMaria Kaczyńska awitch who should euthanize herself. He was also to claim that the president had cheated him. [cite news |first=Marcin |last=Dzierżanowski |title=Spowiedź Rydzyka - posłuchaj nagrań wykładów szefa Radia Maryja |url=http://www.wprost.pl/ar/?O=109883 |date=2007-07-09 |accessdate=2008-07-14 |language=Polish] 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 theGospel ." [cite journal |last=Życiński |first=Józef Mirosław |authorlink=Józef Życiński |year=2000 |title=Cultural and Religious Transformations in Polish Society in 1989-1999 |journal=Cultures and Faith |volume=8 |issue=1 |publisher=Pontifical Council for Culture |url=http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/cultr/documents/rc_pc_cultr_20000302_doc_i-2000-plenaria-2_en.html#8 |accessdate=2008-07-14]"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." [cite news |title=Anti-EU Polish Catholic radio station seeks EU funds |url=http://www.eubusiness.com/news_live/1176915601.58/ |publisher=EUbusiness Ltd |date=2007-04-18 |accessdate=2008-07-14] [cite news |title=EC questions decision to give EU funds to Rydzyk school |url=http://gospodarka.gazeta.pl/gospodarka/1,54642,4441602.html |format= |work= |publisher=Gazeta.pl |date=2007-09-29 |accessdate=2008-07-14]
Active politics
Rydzyk and his team actively supported the victorious
Law and Justice (Polish: Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) party during the 2005 election. [cite news |first=Richard |last=Bernstein |title=LETTER FROM POLAND; Differing Treatment of Religious Slurs Raises an Old Issue |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE7D6113FF930A35756C0A9609C8B63 |work=The New York Times |date=2006-05-03 |accessdate=2008-07-14] Asked whether Tadeusz Rydzyk would form apolitical party , bishopTadeusz Pieronek , the former secretary general of the Episcopate of Poland, replied that he could not imagine a priest starting a political organization. [cite news |title=Wałęsa at War |url=http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/7745/ |work=Warsaw Voice |date=2005-02-22 |accessdate=2008-07-14]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.Fact|date=July 2008In January 2006, a journalist from the Polish tabloid "
Fakt " phoned the minister for agricultureKrzysztof Jurgiel , pretending to be Rydzyk's assistant, and told Jurgiel that Father Director's car had broken down.Fact|date=July 2008 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.Fact|date=July 2008References
ee also
*
Redemptorists
*Far-right
*Politics of Poland
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