Less than two weeks ago, on April 27, 2023, the head of the Polish Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland, Professor Wiktor Wysoczański, passed away. This small denomination, today numbering less than 20,000 believers who do not recognize the supremacy of the papacy and Rome, was formerly intended by the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic to play a certain political role.
The “Church” itself has its roots in the attitude of the Polish-American community, which in the late 19th century opposed the policies of the then bishops, whose actions united parishes and local customs, which was not to the taste of patriotism, but also some rebellious compatriots. In 1918, the faithful of this community began to establish their small structures in the reborn Poland, although despite the strength of the Roman Catholic Church, they managed to remain only marginal folklore, humorously combining Polish Christian traditions with a national lack of modesty.
The Communists take over the Polish Catholic Church
In Poland, however, this structure would take on a different role after 1945. After the breaking of the old leadership, and especially the imprisonment and murder of the head of the community, Bishop Józef Podlewski, by the UB, which was reported by other clergymen, the Polish Catholic Church was dealt with by the Bureau of Religious Affairs , 5th Department of the Ministry of Public Security. While Podlewski was previously a symbol of resistance against the Germans and communists, his successors were already subordinate to the authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland, and sometimes belonged to the Roman Catholic clergy, but due to breaking laws and customs, they came into conflict with the bishops.
The security service tried to use this structure to oppose the “evil” Roman Church, since 1951 we can actually talk about the “Polish Catholics” who were taken over by the services. Two years later, Primate Wyszyński was arrested, so in addition to strengthening non-Catholic Christian structures, the Roman Catholic clergy was suppressed on a gigantic scale.
For example, the Polish Catholic Church received the buildings of the temples of those evangelicals who did not want to submit to the communists, received financial support, and in 1954 they and other non-Roman denominations were allowed to establish the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw.
Take something away from the Roman Catholic Church
This entire strategy, which was designed to deprive the Roman Catholic Church of Poland of its influence and create competition for it, did not have the expected success. In the People’s Republic of Poland, the idea was to simply repeat a certain maneuver used in the Soviet Union – to support the Orthodox splitters, the so-called Old Believers, at the expense of mainstream Orthodoxy. Old Believers churches were renovated, received various material support and were also controlled by the security apparatus of the communist regime.
Today, of course, the Polish Catholic Church does not play the role of a hidden state destroyer of other denominations, nor is it a Christianity approved by the authorities. There is no reason to believe that his believers or clergy are carrying out their ministry out of malice, for honors or benefits they would have received before 1989.
The instrumental treatment of the Polish Catholic Church was a fairly classic operation by the secret services to weaken a larger adversary, even as it ineffectively undermined the power of the Roman Church in Poland.
The Polish-Catholic structure was useful not so much for competition in society, but, for example, to steal from Primate Wyszyński those clergy who were in conflict with the hierarchs. The security service fueled misunderstandings between parishes and bishops, and then the prospect of taking advantage of the kindness of joining the Bureau of Religious Affairs subsidized schismatics appeared. Under Gomułka, the Polish Catholic Church was completely subservient to the authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland, and other smaller religious communities also had no chance to resist the pressure of the powerful repressive apparatus.
“Beware of Cops”
Creating an “alternative community” to weaken the “main community” is an old trick of the invaders. Already in the 19th century, centers were established to bring together and educate citizens so that they would be a problem for the patriotic Warsaw (the Nobility Institute in the mid-19th century) or for the Catholic priests (the institution of the so-called patriotic priests called ).
It is similar to other conservative circles in Poland. Some are strangely enthusiastically pumped by the liberal media so that suddenly some clergy or supposedly conservative association, magazine or party pops up where they can snatch grants, readers or voters from the mainstream of the right.
That will become visible in these elections, especially when, for example, in the Senate battle in one-person constituencies there will be “right-wing” candidates, albeit with no chance of winning, but with a chance to remove such a piece of the electorate that the candidate of the Liberals or the left will win. In the same way, there are “Catholic” publicists or even priests who can appear in the powerful media mainstream with the title “Catholic” or “priest”, or better – “priest professor” and subtly undermine the official position of the Catholics. Church.
In this sense, it is clear that secret political plays are often staged on the right side of the Polish barricade. After all, we already had Roman Giertych, a turbo-Catholic and arch-patriot, who eventually became an icon of the Third Polish Republic, a defender of the liberal establishment and a hero of the anti-PiS crusades.
In all this, many decent people will be fooled and follow various noble slogans. Their support for the cause will be most lacking in this battle.
Source: wPolityce