Attack on Literature Draws Outrage From Around the Globe
Warsaw, Poland: What sounded originally like an April Fool’s Day joke turned out to be a serious and real event – in the year 2019! On Sunday after mass, a group of Catholic priests, accompanied by altar boys (who probably had no choice to refuse participation in this event) orchestrated a public burning of books called ‘sacrilegious’. The book burning event focused on books considered ‘non-Christian’ or ‘against the word of God’ and included works by Osho, by British author J. K. Rowling, (author of the Harry Potter children’s novels) and other books considered ‘occult’ by the priests. The books were all brought in by parishioners, who were encouraged by the priests to clear their homes of objects that had “evil forces.”
The attack on children’s novels and self-help books has generated strong reactions across international news channels, including protests against the burning of books by Osho in the pyre, along with icons representing Buddhism and Hinduism. Images of the event were posted on the church’s Facebook site but have been removed by now, but not before they were shared around the globe and international media outlets.
All over the world, the event is compared with the official book-burnings in Nazi Germany. In 1823, the German poet Heinrich Heine wrote the words, “Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen,” or “Where books are burned, in the end, people will also be burned,” and in 1933, young Nazi students in Germany organized nationwide book burnings to censor and eliminate influence of so-called “decadent” books and soon thereafter the Nazis began the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust. soon followed.
The Polish Catholic bishops’ conference confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the incident had occurred but declined to comment. The book burnings seem to be an orchestrated distraction after the Church last month had to release a report, documenting sexual abuse of children by hundreds of Polish priests between 1990 and 2018 and the cover up by bishops. Clearly, the public is turning against the church; a Polish feature film about abuse by Catholic priests is setting attendance records at the country’s box office. ‘Kler’ – the Polish word for clergy – attracted over 935,000 viewers on the first weekend in October 2018. It was Poland’s best opening in 30 years, according to the Association of Polish Filmmakers.
Books by Osho are amongst the most popular self-help and inspirational books published in Poland and have been closely and fearfully watched by the Catholic Church for years. I remember when in the 90’s, Osho International Foundation signed the first publishing agreements in Poland, a large publishing house withdrew their first Osho book on meditation from the market and told me that this was done owing to direct pressure from the Catholic Church.
It took just a few years thereafter to interest other publishers and soon thereafter works by Osho are published by five publishers in Poland, including ‘Black Sheep’ (Wydawnicza Czarna OWCA), the leading publishing house in psychology, founded by Polish psychologist Jacek Santorski.
Every year, the Vatican goes on putting together the black list, which books you should read, which books you should not read. Right now they cannot do what they used to do in the past: in the past, they used to burn the books…
Osho
Wherever those books were found, they were burned. And whosoever resisted was killed or was also burned with the books.
More and more “spiritual” books appear on bestselling lists, also in a country like Poland, deeply dominated by a cult called “Catholic Church, which has always acted against Osho, initiating ‘anti-cult’ movements in western European countries in which Osho was already popular in the 80’s and now the church worries about one of their last strong-holds Poland and turns again to public book burning. It is no surprise that the priests have such a focus on OSHO, as there are currently 60 titles by Osho available in Polish language and more to come. Black Sheep just acquired the latest Osho title to be released internationally by Penguin Random House, New York “A Course in Meditation.
My books are on the black list. Even the books in which I have spoken on Jesus, and spoken very considerately so that nobody is offended – even those books!
Osho
The United Nations Should Take Over Vatican Library
Osho has exposed again and again the fear of truth or new ideas by religions and politicians:
“The Catholic Church goes on prohibiting the Catholics: ‘Don’t read this, don’t read that.’ They go on putting books on their black list, which are banned for the Catholics. The Vatican library has thousands of tremendously beautiful documents; for thousands of years, they have been gathering all those scriptures that they have burned, banned, prohibited. But they have kept a few copies in the Vatican library just as historical past, and what has been done in the past and what has been destroyed in the past – some proof of that. Anything that went against Christianity was destroyed. In the library of the Vatican they don’t allow anybody. That library should be taken over by UNO, immediately. It is not the property of the Vatican. And that library may reveal thousands of truths, inventions, discoveries which the popes down the ages have prevented from happening by burning the books.”
In the library of the Vatican they don’t allow anybody. That library should be taken over by UNO, immediately. It is not the property of the Vatican.
Osho
