The January “Patriotic Pilgrimage of Fans” at the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa has become a fixture of Poland’s football calendar. This year, it drew unusual attention after President Andrzej Duda used his speech to call for “Poland without illegal immigrants”, praising supporters as guardians of the nation.
The event, founded in 2009, brings thousands of supporters from clubs across the country to one of Catholicism’s most important shrines. Scarves hang beside votive offerings; club banners share space with images of the Black Madonna. The intention was to channel fan identity away from violence and towards prayer and charity.
This year showed how easily such spaces can be pulled into wider struggles over migration and national identity.
A Shrine Becomes a Stage
Jasna Góra has long drawn pilgrims from across Central Europe. For many supporters, the annual gathering is a chance to attend Mass, sing hymns and chant club songs in a setting very different from the terraces.
The monastery’s priests have encouraged confessions and charity projects, hoping to steer ultra culture towards service and away from aggression. In the early years, organisers stressed that no political banners or slogans were welcome inside the basilica.
This year, the atmosphere shifted. Standing before a crowd of fans and priests, Duda praised the “manly” patriotism of supporters and tied their image to a campaign against irregular migration. It was the first time a sitting president had attended the pilgrimage in person. The result felt less like a pastoral visit and more like a rally.
Who Counts as an “Illegal Immigrant”?
Poland remains one of the most ethnically homogeneous states in the European Union.
Official data show that foreign nationals account for roughly 1.2 per cent of the usually resident population and only 0.3 per cent of the official population register.
Yet opinion surveys across Europe, including Poland, show that many people believe irregular migrants outnumber legal residents. In a recent YouGov poll, more Poles thought there were more “illegal” than legal migrants than the other way round, despite the absence of data to support that view.
Against that backdrop, a phrase like “Poland without illegal immigrants” lands less as a narrow legal pledge and more as a broad signal about who belongs. Delivered in front of football fans, it risks turning a religious event into a stage for fear and resentment.
Football, Faith and National Pride
Football culture often blends easily with national pride. In many countries, flags, anthems and religious symbols mix on match days and pilgrimages. The Polish fans’ gathering is not unusual in that sense.
What stands out is the choice of emphasis. The shrine offers plenty of themes a head of state could pick up: reconciliation between rival supporters, the decline in church attendance, or the daily work of priests dealing with addiction and poverty. Instead, the message centred on defending borders and rejecting newcomers.
For some supporters, that language may feel natural. Ultras in Poland have a long history of nationalist banners and hostility towards both the political left and perceived outsiders. For others, the pilgrimage is one of the few moments where rival fans can stand side by side without police lines. Bringing divisive slogans into that space risks undermining the original purpose.
The Church in a Difficult Position
The Catholic Church in Poland faces its own pressures: declining trust over abuse scandals, a younger generation less tied to Sunday Mass, and a public weary of priests speaking directly into party politics.
Hosting a presidential speech that singles out “illegal immigrants” complicates the monastery’s pastoral role. Monks insist that everyone is welcome at Jasna Góra, including foreigners and non-Catholics, and that the shrine belongs to believers rather than parties. At the same time, it is hard to separate the place from the message when cameras broadcast both as one image.
If churches wish to remain spaces where different views can coexist, they may have to draw clearer lines about what kind of language is acceptable on their altars.
When Shrines Become Stages
Poland is not alone. Across the continent, religious buildings and sports venues often become backdrops for speeches about national destiny and migration. Populist leaders know that fans and worshippers form some of the most loyal crowds they can stand before.
The risk is that ordinary believers and supporters get pulled into fights they did not choose. Many travelled to Częstochowa to pray for their families, their clubs or their health, not to send a message about border policy.
From a distance, images of flares, banners and presidential speeches blur into a single narrative of a country under siege. Up close, the scene is messier: parents with children, older fans remembering communist-era pilgrimages, priests trying to talk about confession while chants roll in from the square.
What This Moment Tells Us
Events like the fans’ pilgrimage show how hard it has become to keep cultural and spiritual life separate from the migration debate. Even spaces designed for reflection and thanksgiving can be pulled into the orbit of slogans.
That may please some voters. It may even bring short-term gains for politicians keen to present themselves as protectors. In the long run, it drains common rituals of the one thing they can still offer in a polarised climate: a few hours where people stand together without being sorted into camps.
Football supporters will keep making their way to Jasna Góra. They will hang scarves, light candles and sing, regardless of who speaks on the podium. The choice facing organisers and leaders is simple enough, even if difficult in practice: treat them as citizens first, or as props in a permanent campaign about who should stay and who should leave.
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