Polish Church has changed its policy on taking vows of chastity by Catholic widows, writes Gazeta Wyborcza.

Press reviewed by Agnieszka Bielawska

The Polish Episcopate has decided that a widowed Catholic woman can take vows of chastity writes Gazeta Wyborcza. ‘This is an avant-garde initiative of the Polish Catholic Church’ underlines bishop Stefan Cichy who heads the Commission of Cult and Sacraments of the Conference of Polish Bishops. The issue concerns the text of the blessing of widows, which has been approved by the commission. The widows willing to take the vows pledge a life of purity. It is a custom known since early Christianity writes Gazeta Wyborcza. Such women dedicate their life to Christ but do not take any sisterhood vows. The widows do not pledge to live in earthly poverty nor do they pledge holy obedience, which differentiates the ceremony from the vows taken when entering a convent. The idea, writes the daily, is an answer to pledges received by the Catholic Church in Poland from women who wished to take a more active part in church life after the death of their husbands.
 
Despite the weak zloty and  the scandal that erupted over Justice Minister Andrzej Czuma, support for the ruling Civic Platform is on the rise, writes Rzeczpospolita. Contrary to expectations, the new, more friendly and open image of the opposition Law and Justice found social acclaim only for a month. According to the poll commission by the daily and prepared by the GFK Polonia, 56 percent of the respondents are willing to vote for the Civic Platform, while only 25 percent for Law and Justice. The daily writes that the support for the party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk could be explained by the promises made by the government to help finance mortgage payments to those who had lost their jobs in result of the crisis, as well as the firm stand of the government to begin talks on ERM2 and euro zone entry.
 
And the Polish capital can not be defined with one adjective writes the Warsaw city daily Zycie Warszawy. City authorities should follow the ideas of student hostels how to promote the capital abroad. Two Warsaw hostels hosted a group of 60 students of journalism from around the world and prepared a programme of sightseeing Warsaw that the guests will remember for long. The majority of the young people had a completely different image of Warsaw from the one they saw during the programme. They admitted they had no idea Warsaw was such a diverse, colourful city, writes Zycie Warszawy. The students visited most unexpected places in the capital ranging from the must-sees, to sites, which are still under construction. They had to play a game describing the city monuments, interviewed people in the streets  and also visited the families of Varsovians in their homes. ‘Warsaw was never a place I would think of recommending’, the daily quotes one of the students,’ now I think it is a unique city, modern, vital and has lots to offer.’