Cold War Poland: The Catholic Church and Communist Governmnt -- Uneasy Truce (1956-70)

Figure 1.--Using all he force of a Comminisr Government, state controlled media, and police state power, the Polish peoole continued to go to church and to make sure their children had thrir First Communion. This boy is Stasis. He lived in Brzeg, a Silesian town that was part if Geramny befire the War. Thevphitograph was taken in August 1960. .

The Communists and the Church achieved an unprecdebts level of toleration. Given the beliefs of Catholics and Communists, it was from the beginning an uneasy truce. Cardinal Wyszyński tried to publish a Vatican decree sanctoning Catholics who collaborated with the Government. The Government prevented the Cardinal from doing so (1957). The Government continued its anti--religious propaganda. They pushed what might be called women's issue as a way of attacking the Church, including it financial base. And they continued their atheism campaign in a variety of ways. It all failed, however, to register with the Polish publics. Nor did police state actions scuceed in supressing the Church. Coomunist state actions weakened the Church, undermining its financial base, but did not at all affect the attachment of the Polish peiole to the Church. In fact as the Polish Communist state failed to achieve either econoic success or the attachment of the Polish people, the public increasingly turned to the Church. The Polish Commnisys could never shake the image of being a creature of the Sobiets and for good reason. In addition, one unanticipated decelopment was the rise of an increasingly vocal and highly batiinalisric Catholic intelligentsia which was becoming an active movement of young Catholics.

Women

Aborion was a major issue. Abortion was not permiited in most European ciyntries before the War. The resistance to it in Poland was especially pronounced. The Givernment legalized abortion (1956). Further regukaions were passed in that increased access (1959). These regulations were passed in the midst massive labour shortages. So many peiple had been killed during the War. Poland had one of the heaviest casualties of the War. The Communists used it as oart of the attcks on the Church, a kind of ideological weapon. The idea was to undermine the influence of the Church. [Zajicek and Calasanti] The Communists did not permit any criticism of its birth control or abortion in the press. The Communists state encouraged women to take a more active role in both the labor force and in social life. This also was aomed at the Church and its conservative attitudes about woman's role in society and family life.

Communist Atheism Campaign

Under Gomulka, the Communists reduced restrictions on the eastern Catholic churches which began to grow, with assistance from the main Roman Catholic Churchs. [Wynot] The Communists did not, however, end their efforts to supress the Church. Atheism is an integral component of Marxism. And drawing the ire of Polish Communists was that the Church was such a vibrant national institution -- something tha bwas intolerable in a totalitarian Communist police state. The Communists recognized that the devotion of the Polish people was to strong to attack the Church frontally, unlike the siuation in the Soviet Union itself and other countries in the Soviet Eastern European empire. A kind of informal truce developed between the Communist State and Catholic Episcopate. The open assault on the Church would end, but a range of less brutal restrictions would be imposed. In return, the Church would not only refrain from involving itself in politics, but recognize the legitimacy of the Communist state.

Catholic intelligentsia

One unanticipated decelopment was the rise of an increasingly vocal and highly batiinalisric Catholic intelligentsia which was becoming an active movement of young Catholics. [Clark] This was beconing notable by the 1960s. And it was a mixture of devout Catholcism and anto-Russiam/Soviet Polish nationalism. Khrushchev's De=Stalinization effort provided room for this development becayse it resructed the use of police state powers (1956). It did not end the police state, but resricted it. The "Oasis" movement appeard (1960s). It was launched by Father Franciszek Blachniki. It involved a range of Church activities including pilgrimages, retreats, and various ecumenical endeavours. The Government attempted to undermine it, nut kargely failed. failed.

Church Achievements

As a result, Polish Church gained a range of toleration and freedoms that were unprecedented within the Soviet empire. Even so the Comminists almosat immediatly began to limit the concessions. -The Church was allowed to publish periodicals, although the Goverment severaly limited the number of copies published. The Church's right to control the selection and training of its priests was recognized. Most astounding was allowing some religious education to again take place in schools, to an exrent. Catholic religius education was allowed to resume, but it wa not compulsory. Before the War, religious education was theoretically compulsory, but school admministrators usually arrahged it so it was not actually compulsory. Religious instruction pnly existed in schools where a majority of parents requested it. And even then it was presented as am extracurricular activity after the regular school day. The Communist authoriries continued this approach and intriduced furher measures at further beroding the concession. And the Comminists sought to exclude clerics from teaching reguklar subjecrs.

Sources

Berend, Iván T. Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Cieplak, Tadeusz N. "Church and State in People's Poland." Polish American Studies Vol. 26, No. 2 (Autumn 1969), pp. 15-30.

Dinka, Frank. "Sources of Conflict between Church and State in Poland," The Review of Politics, Vol. 28, No. 3 (July, 1966), pp. 332-49.

Clark, Joanna Rostropowicz. "The Church and the Communist Power," Sarmatian Review Vol. 30, No. 2 (2010).

Kramer, John M. "The Vatican's 'Ostpolitik'," The Review of Politics, Vol. 42, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 283-308.

Tighe, Carl. "Cultural pathology: Roots of Polish literary opposition to Communism," Journal of European Studies Vol. 29. No. 2 (1999)

Wynot, Edward, D., Jr. "Captive faith: the Polish Orthodox Church, 1945-1989," East European Quarterly Vol. 36, No. 3 (2002).

Zajicek, Anna M. and Toni M. Calasanti. "Patriarchal struggles and state practices: a feminist, political-economic view." Bol. 12, No. 5 (1998).

Created: 7:33 PM 5/10/2020
Last updated: 7:33 PM 5/10/2020