A Corpus Christi procession in Witow, in the Podhale region of southern Poland. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Momot
Following tradition, colourful processions were held the length and the breadth of the country, with open air masses held at four points in each parade.
Corpus Christi is always held on the ninth Thursday after Easter, following Trinity Sunday, and it celebrates the belief that Christ's blood and body are present in the Eucharist.
The Blessed Sacrament is carried aloft throughout the procession, while the faithful sing.
In Poland, young girls, typically in folk costume, scatter flower petals from baskets.
Church backs pro-life doctors
Archbishop of Warsaw Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz used the feast day as an opportunity to reaffirm the Church's support for 3000 pro-life doctors who signed a declaration stressing their right to decline abortions, owing to personal conscience.
“Freedom of conscience is one of the fundamental human rights,” the cardinal said, in reference to the clause in Polish law that allows doctors to refuse an abortion.
“If the clause is indeed to guarantee a doctor's freedom of conscience, and not just to be an illusory clause, then the law cannot force doctors to act against their conscience,” he said.
Cardinal Nycz's sentiments were echoed on Thursday by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow.
Poland's strict abortion laws only permit the operation if a woman's life or health is jeopardised by the continuation of a pregnancy, if the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act such as rape, or if the foetus is seriously malformed.
However, if a doctor declines to conduct an abortion, he is legally obliged to help the patient elsewhere. (nh)
Source: PAP