By Br. Alexis Bugnolo

There is only one place in all of Poland, where the Church has approved and recognized that Our Lady has appeared. That is the village of Gietrzwałd, in northeastern Poland, along the ancient borders with Prussia.

It was here in 1877, that Our Lady appeared to two little girls, Stanisława Samulowska and Justyna Szafryńska, and asked them to pray the Rosary. It was the first apparition in history where the Blessed Virgin spoke the Polish language, and it subsequently sparked a movement of nationalistic fervor in those lands, which at that time, due to the passage of the Kingdom of Prussia into the German Empire, were under German control. The village passed to the dominion of Poland after Prussia was divided between Poland and the U.S.S.R. some 60 years later.

The apparitions of Our Lady at Gietrzwałd were declared authentic in 1977, on the 100th anniversary of their occurrence, and they remain central in importance to the Catholic identity of the Polish Nation.

This is why there is now national outrage that the Germany supermarket chain, Lidl, which is present throughout Europe, is attempting to destroy the historic and religious character of this village which is now the national shrine of Our Lady Queen of Poland, at the Basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.

LIDL says that they require another distribution center in this NE corner of Poland and that their huge facility is just what the village needs for economic development.

Local leaders say otherwise. That the facility will overtax the roads with traffic and destroy the historic and religious character of this ancient Polish town which has the most unique ties between Heaven and the Polish people. That, LIDl a German company is attempting thereby to attack the national and religious character of the Polish people, just as many companies of Germany do in Poland by funding far left anti-Catholic groups and buying support though salaries offered to local workers.

Some locals have gone so far as to claim that LIDL is involved in a demonic attack against the Shrine of Our Lady Queen of Poland.

As one journalist remarked:

“Just a few weeks ago, it seemed that ruthless efforts to do business in Gietrzwałd would not encounter social resistance, and LIDL’s gigantic distribution center combined with waste disposal installations would completely and irreversibly devastate the surroundings of the Sanctuary.

“Let me remind you: we are not talking about a shop. We are talking about a gigantic distribution center: 41 hectares in size for the investment, including a 7 ha hall (440 m x 153 m and a height of 24 meters), over 9 ha of hardened surface, ventilation devices higher than the church tower (of the National Basilica of Our Lady), dominating the landscape of Gietrzwałd. This is how it would look like.”

Their complaints seem entirely based, because of the tiny population of the village – only 585 – and the obvious incapacity of the road system and environment to sustain such a large distribution center.

In response, the people organized and got the County Board to annul the permit for construction on the ground that it had been granted without a consultation of the local inhabitants and without a impact study on the locale culture.

LIDL is now appealing the ruling in court.

For their part, there are many Catholics of Poland who are calling on their brothers in the faith throughout Europe to boycott LIDL throughout Europe for this outrage against the Mother of God, Queen of Poland.

I am participating in this boycott.

I suggest you write a letter of protest and present it to the store manager in your own town, citing these above mentioned events, and declaring you will purchase no more products at their stores until LIDL ceases and desists with its project in Gietrzwałd, Poland.