The State and the Church

Abstract

It was not necessary to wait long for conclusions to be drawn from post-mortem examination of tragic December 1970 events in Poland. The new First Secretary at once proclaimed that villain of piece was former leadership because it failed to communicate with workers and intelligentsia and to follow democratic procedures within Party itself.1 Echoing this verdict, a Warsaw mass circulation daily promptly declared that the Polish community has long been waiting for credibility gap between nation and Party to be overcome.2 The subsequent pronouncements of Gierek and other notables went a long way to make clear sine qua non of redemption. It was now stressed that task of successful socialist construction in Poland required mobilization of Party and non-Party members of body politic, of workers and intelligentsia, of town and country dwellers, of old and young citizens, and of believers as well as non-believers. On 23 December new premier, Piotr Jaroszewicz announced at special meeting of Sejm that the Government would now try to bring about a full normalization of relations with Catholic church.3 While term normalization is rather vague (and has since been subjected to criticism on that score), its use in above context clearly conceded that state-church relations in Polish People's Republic ifell short of what was desirable and should be improved. How did ^Catholic church fare during three decades of Marxist regimen? It seems appropriate to examine record briefly.4 It has been frequently asserted by Western observers that one of features which makes Poland stand out among socialist countries