Provocative as always, pop star Madonna is including Poland in her European tour - on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin. A satanic provocation for some but, this time, the Roman Catholic Church is keeping mum.

As part of her Sticky and Sweet tour, Madonna is performing in Poland this weekend for the first time in her career. The 50-year-old pop idol will play an airbase outside Warsaw on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption. This is the day on which thousands of Poles visit the shrine of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, one of Poland’s most important Catholic icons.

Although the concert promoter insists it is coincidence, some Poles are calling the timing a provocation. Former president and union leader Lech Walesa has described it as a “satanic provocation”.

Degenerate
Pro-Polonia, a conservative group with the Catholic Church, says the concert is blasphemous and degenerate, and has furiously but unsuccessfully tried to have it banned.

“They paint the performance as a demonic attack on the church and on Christian values,” says Adam Szostkiewicz, an authority on the Catholic Church in Poland.

Listen to Thijs Papôt's report:

Younger generation
It is not the first time that Madonna and the Church have been at loggerheads. An earlier European tour led to a storm of protest from religious organisations, when the pop star had herself ‘crucified’ during the show.

The latest controversy seems to have embarrassed the Polish church because, although many Catholic leaders find her performing on Assumption Day offensive, a broad offensive against Madonna is out of the question this time round. Mr Szostkiewicz thinks this is because there they are worried about, yet again, presenting the Polish church as arch-conservative.

“There’s a general trend within the church for leading figures, including archbishops, not to get involved in this sort of argument between fundamentalist Catholics and a more open younger generation which just wants to go to a concert.”

Fire service
It is indeed hard to find many young people in Warsaw worried about the concert being given by the ‘material girl’. Leonard, a 29-year-old sitting outside a bar where Madonna’s new CD is blaring out of the sound system, says Warsaw is looking forward to the star’s visit.

“I’m going to the concert and think it’s a shame some people are causing a fuss about it. People can choose what to do on that day. You can go to church or to a concert – it’s a free choice.”

For a while, it looked like the fire service might mess things up, when it transpired that the concert site did not have the correct permits. After its earlier efforts, Pro-Polonia has announced it will be holding another protest rally next Saturday. But, without the backing of the Catholic Church, the protest is unlikely to make more noise than the concert.

Photo: madonnafan_duesseldorf at flickr under Creative Commons Licence