Poland's wave of Catholic apostasy, Lebanon's "cancer tsunami" and Europe's space project
DISPATCH №61
Hello and welcome.
Each week, Translator’s Dispatch brings you summaries of three compelling stories from media beyond the Anglosphere. It’s our way of helping us all read the world a little differently, to get out of our mono-lingual media bubbles.
We begin in Poland, where a Catholic magazine explores the growing phenomenon of “apostasy” – where individuals are officially renouncing their faith.
From Lebanon, an investigation warns of a “cancer tsunami” driven by environmental degradation, widespread smoking and systemic political inaction.
And from Switzerland, an interview with the director of the European Space Agency reflecting on whether Europe is “naked in space”.
But first, we have some exciting news to share… Translator Issue #3 will be released on Wednesday 22 April. You can pre-order your copy now - available for international delivery!
It’s a feast, including long-form journalism, reportage and non-fiction from Italy, South Africa, South Korea, China and more, from searing investigative journalism and stories to fascinate and delight.
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…ok, back to this week’s summaries. Enjoy the read!
How do you say “apostasy” in Polish?
A magazine in Poland explores the increasingly common phenomenon of believers formally abandoning their Catholic faith
While some media outlets in Western Europe talk of a “quiet revival” of the Christian faith, especially among young people, the Polish Catholic magazine Tygodnik Powszechny published a recent piece on those who have chosen to make a decisive break from the Church.
The article by journalist Adrian Burtan features the stories of two women who turned to “apostasy” – a complete, official abandonment of the faith, rather than a decision to stop attending Mass.
While reliable figures on apostasy in Poland are scarce, an “Apostasy Map” project and the website apostazja.eu, which offers templates for leaving the Church, have recorded thousands of downloads since 2020. Not everyone who downloads a declaration submits it, but the figures suggest that such formal departures may be widespread.
Alicja Bazan grew up deeply involved in the Church in Kraków. She attended retreats, belonged to youth groups and helped organise church camps.
But over time she became disillusioned, especially as she watched bishops make hostile statements about sexual minorities and saw little accountability among the clergy for abuse scandals. When she raised questions with officials, she said she was told she “thinks too much” and was expected to accept the Church’s teachings without discussion.
“It’s not that I didn’t try to fight for my faith,” she told the magazine. “I did, because giving up something you’ve dedicated a large part of your life to isn’t easy.”
Eventually she concluded she could no longer stay. When she was writing her list of goals for the New Year of 2025, she made apostasy one of them. The formal process involved submitting a declaration and visiting a priest.
Joanna Banach, also featured in the report, turned to the Church as a teenager, finding it provided an escape from a difficult family environment. She became deeply involved in parish life.
But a crisis came later when her own daughter told her she was attracted to women. After seeking guidance from a priest - who advised her to love her child - Joanna chose to support her daughter openly, attending Pride marches and sharing this publicly online.
The reaction from fellow parishioners, however, was harsh. Community members condemned her, and pressure from the parish council led to her removal from official roles.
The experience pushed her into a depression and led her to stop attending Mass. Apostasy, when she chose it, formalised a separation that had already happened.
Banach said: “Over time, I began to think that the Church was no longer my place. That everything the community taught had nothing to do with the Gospel. Jesus said that we are all loved just as we are. But in the Church, it’s different.”
Experts cited in the article said that these two examples were part of broader trends. Katarzyna Zielińska, a sociologist of religion at Jagiellonian University, pointed to cultural and economic change as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Polish religiosity, she says, often relies on ritual and repetition. When lockdowns disrupted that rhythm, many people simply did not return to church.
Recent declines have also been shaped by local factors: the Church’s closeness to politicians, and what critics like Alicja Bazan see as a lack of decisive action against abusive clergy. Without movement on either of these issues, Poland’s secularisation is likely to continue, the Catholic publication predicts.
The original article ‘Dlaczego wierni odchodzą z Kościoła? Dwie opowieści o apostazji’ by Adrian Burtan was first published in Polish on 10 February.
It is available here.
Tygodnik Powszechny is a Catholic weekly magazine that was founded in 1945.
Summary by TM
Lebanon’s slow motion “cancer tsunami”
Rising cancer rates expose a web of pollution and public health failure in Lebanon
In an in-depth report for An-Nahar, journalist Laila Girgis examines the sharp increase in cancer cases in Lebanon, framing it as a looming public health crisis driven by environmental degradation, widespread smoking and systemic political inaction.
The article opens with a stark warning: Lebanon may be facing a “cancer tsunami.” Drawing on research published by The Lancet – a British medical journal – Girgis notes projections that cancer mortality could increase by as much as 80 per cent by 2050 if current trends continue. While some figures are based on predictive models rather than complete national data, health experts broadly agree that rates in Lebanon are rising, particularly for breast, lung and prostate cancers.
At the centre of the crisis is a complex web of interrelated risk factors. Chief among them is smoking. Lebanon ranks among the highest globally for tobacco consumption, with both cigarettes and shisha deeply embedded in social life. Experts warn that these products contain dozens of carcinogenic substances, significantly increasing the risk of multiple cancers beyond the lungs, including those affecting the throat and urinary tract. Alarmingly, smoking is also widespread among young people, with nearly a third of adolescents reported to be smokers.
Environmental pollution is another major driver. The widespread use of diesel generators, necessitated by the state’s failure to provide reliable electricity, has created a toxic atmosphere, particularly in urban areas like Beirut. Studies cited in the article reveal dangerously high levels of carcinogenic particles in the air, many of which penetrate the body and contribute to long-term health risks. Industrial pollution, contaminated water sources such as the Litani River, and unregulated pesticide use further compound the problem, introducing toxins into both the environment and the food supply.
Girgis highlights how these risks are exacerbated by weak governance. Regulations exist but are poorly enforced, whether in relation to smoking bans, environmental protections or food safety standards. According to experts and activists, many of the underlying causes of cancer are tied to entrenched political and economic interests, making meaningful reform difficult. This has led to what the article describes as a “chaotic” system in which pollution, unsafe agricultural practices and even counterfeit medicines persist largely unchecked.
Data gaps also complicate the national response. While cancer incidence is relatively well tracked through a revived national registry, mortality data remains incomplete due to historical limitations in accessing population records. This has forced reliance on projections rather than comprehensive statistics, though recent steps to improve data access may help clarify the scale of the crisis.
Ultimately, the article argues that Lebanon’s cancer burden is not inevitable, but indeed largely preventable. Addressing it will require political will, enforcement of existing laws and coordinated action across sectors. Without this, Girgis suggests, the country risks moving from warning signs to a full-scale public health catastrophe.
The original article, ‘تسونامي السرطان: كيف يُصنع في لبنان أخطر أوبئة العصر؟’ by Laila Girgis was published in Arabic on February 27, 2026 in An-Nahar.
It is available here.
An-Nahar is one of Lebanon’s leading Arabic-language daily newspapers and is widely regarded as a “newspaper of record” in the Arab world.
Summary by ZN
Spatially challenged
The director of the European Space Agency explains how Europe is both behind, and ahead, in space
A few months ago, the German foreign minister gave a talk in Berlin. In the time it took to give his remarks, he noted, several spy satellites from Russia and China would pass somewhere overhead. Around the same time, a plane carrying the head of the European Commission was forced to change plans due to interference — presumed to be a form of Russian hybrid warfare — to its navigational systems, which depend on networks of satellites circling the earth.
In a world where space is no longer just the final frontier for state-led exploration, but the backyard of the global economy, a playground for billionaires and a domain of geopolitical competition, Beat Balzli from the Swiss newspaper NZZ asks Josef Aschbacher, the director of the European Space Agency (the ESA), whether Europe is “naked” in space.
“Europe is not completely naked, but almost”, Aschbacher admits. There is no European space defence programme. A few countries – he lists Germany, France and Italy – have national satellite programmes. Aschbacher points to Europe’s Copernicus earth observation satellite networks and to the Galileo positioning network as civilian projects which gave some defence benefits. The One Web constellation is growing. But, Aschbacher says, it is nothing like what the United States or China have. When it comes to the rapid expansion of Space X, Aschbacher notes drily that America just has more money.
The NZZ reports that only five percent of the ESA budget goes on defence-related. Nonetheless, Aschbacher declares that something akin to a “Paragdigmenwechsel” – a paradigm shift – is underway. The next European Commission has earmarked 131 billion Euros for investment in defence and space over the next years. “How it will be divvied up isn’t clear”, Aschbacher says.
The director steers the NZZ away from the notion of space weapons, preferring the language of “resilience” and “defensive infrastructure”. A lot seems to be in flux. Aschbacher notes “discussions” with NATO, but no treaties. Mention is made of a Swiss project – Alpstar – which the ESA is collaborating with. Aschbacher brushes off any question of how this might affect Swiss neutrality. “You’d have to ask the Swiss”, he says.
Despite reprioritisation at NASA – the US space agency – Aschbacher points to ongoing European cooperation. When asked about the notion of Space X putting AI data centres in space, he simply says: “Yes, it will happen”.
He points to the ways in which Europe is either catching up or – in the wake of fears about over-reliance on the United States – taking a more strategic approach. “No one is going to replace Starlink”, Aschbacher says – but a European project, Iris 2 may supplement it. He notes the success of the Ariane 6 rocket programme, characterising it as slow to start but quick to ramp up. “European engineering is one of the best in the world”, he says: “it took longer, but it was better”. If Space X launches a hundred rockets in one year, and Europe launches ten, Europeans shouldn’t simply view the US as being ahead by a factor of ten – “we look to our own needs”, he says. Meanwhile, the American company Amazon is using European rockets as well as American ones. A European project for a reusable rocket – Ariane Next 2030 – is coming in the next few years.
But there is an undertow here. Aschbacher notes that Europe can be “incredibly innovative, incredibly good at new technologies” – but miss out on the really big commercial opportunities. There is something of a lament in the director of the ESA noting the ways in which the Copernicus project is world-leading in terms of understanding the planet. “We should praise Europe a little more”, he says.
The original interview was conducted by Beat Balzli in German and published as ‘Verteidigung im Weltall? “Europa steht night ganz nackt da, aber fast”’, in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on February 8, 2026.
It is available here.
NZZ is one of Switzerland’s leading newspapers. This interview was published in its Sunday edition.
Summary by CE
Pre-order Issue #3
Translator Issue #3 will be released on Wednesday 22 April – you can pre-order your copy now. Inside, you’ll find stories from across the world: a Korean middle school on the political frontline, the world of gaming in 1980s Hungary, the fragile ecology (and mystery) of eels in northern Italy, the culture of shamans on the border of China and Vietnam, a searing investigation into Romania’s aesthetic gynaecology industry and Translator’s original Street Talks give voice to hyperlocal stories from Tehran, Karachi, Kyoto, Gaza and Bangalore – all illustrated by artists from around the world.
Plus: Abdul Bacet’s photo essay on Babur’s Gardens in Kabul, an interview with Abeera Kamran and Zeerak Ahmed on digitising the Urdu script, a multilingual crossword, and reviews of Polly Barton’s debut novel and Alexander Voloshin’s migration memoir.
Keep your eye out in the upcoming weeks for a cover reveal, more details on our launch event and exclusive previews on Instagram @translatormag.