The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1981 (4. évfolyam, 3-6. szám)
1981-05-01 / 3. szám
Cardinal Wyszynski - National Hero and Guide / \ ur country has lost the greatest moral ' ' and social authority, representing the Poles* most noble collective feelings.“ So said Professor A. Gieysztor, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in one of thousands of tributes paid to Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski after his death on May 28. In another of these tributes Kurier Polski, a Warsaw daily, said that the cardinal exerted on Polish life “an influence as great as can be exerted by any individual in the face of the mighty mechanismus of history.“ Future generations would surely place him in “the pantheon of the greatest national heroes.“ Cardinal Wyszynki, the newspaper added, “served the nation as head of the Church — an institution for a thousand years inseparably linked to the country's life, an institution which has accompanied it through the most tragic and most glorious turns of its destiny... If it ware not for all that to which he devoted his long and magnificent life, there would not have been any of our great hopes now.“ As Primate of Poland’s Roman Catholic Church for more than 32 years, Wyszinski did incomparably more than any other person in ensuring that his native land maintained its strong Christian faith despite being ruled throughout this often turbulent period by communists ideologically opposed to all religious belief. He had an influence on the thinking and conduct of the Polish people, well over 90 per cent of them Catholics, whidi was much deeper than that of any of the succession of communist rulers with whom he negotiated so skilfully. This influence was gained partly through his defence of workers treated arbitrarily by a communist government in theory existing specifically to adveance their interests. He avoided open confrontation with the Party- State authorities whenever possible, preferring private negotiation as a means of striving to improve the lot of the Church, of the workers and of the disadvantaged generally. His public criticisms of the regime were made only as a last resort. Always aware of Poland’s vulnerable position within the Soviet bloc and of the complicated and changing political realities, he patiently argued against extremism, not only that of the communist rulers but also that of naively over-optimistic elements among the people. Stefan Wyszynski was born in August, 1901, into the family of a village schoolmaster. He studied at Wloclawek and Lublin Catholic University, obtaining a doctorate in law. Ordained a priest in 1924, he was a curate at Wloclawek Cathedral and travelled extensively in Europe before being appointed Professor of Sociology at Wloclawek Theological Seminary. During his eight years on the seminary staff before the Second World War he became increasingly known as the “worker priest“ because of his active concern about labour and social problems and workers’ education. Large demonstrations by Wloclawek’s unemployed in 1933 made a lasting impression on him. During the war he went into hiding when serving as a chaplain to the guerrilla Home Army fighting the Nazi German troops occupying Poland. Consecrated Bishop of Lublin in May, 1946. he was appointed Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and Primate of Poland in January, 1949. His assuption of the highest office in the national church coincided with the start of an intense anti-religious campaign by Poland’s new communist rulers — Stalinists, mainly former exiles in Russia, whose coming to power shortly after the war would have been impossible but for the considerable help they received from the advancing Soviet army and the many civilian political “advisers“ who accompanied it. In the campaign Catholic schools and religious teaching in other schools were abolished, the Church’s social services were severely curtailed, eccelsiastical property was confiscated, and many clergy and members of religious orders were arrested. In December, 1950, in an attempt to prevent further persecution and to seek a modus vivendi with the communist leadership, Wyszynski signed an “understanding between the government and the episcopate“ (not a concordat). After visiting Pope Pius XII in Rome in April. 1951, he was made a cardinal in November, 1952, but five years passed before he returned to the Holy See to receive his red hat. The government paid little regard for its signature of the “understanding“. Persecution of the Church continued, with the authorities publicly vilifying the bishops. In January, 1953, Cardinal Wyszynski cancelled a planned visit to Rome for fear of being refused re-entry into Poland. In February, the government decreed that it was the ultimate authority in the making of Church appointments. In May, the episcopate issued a definitive declaration refusing to offer “things belonging to God on the altar of Caesar.“ In September, Wyszynski was arrested after he had in a sermon condemned the show trial of a bishop. For the next three years the State authorities held him in monasteries and other places where he was totally isolated from the outside world. During the workers’ demonstrations and other turbulent events in Poland in October, 1956, when Soviet military intervention seemed imminent, the new communist regime led by Wladyslaw Gomulka released the cardinal in an attempt to gain popular support. In his first sermon after returning to Warsaw (made during the Hungarian uprising, which an invading Soviet army brutally suppressed) he appealed for “national unity and calm.“ Shortly afterwards, Church and Stare agreed to another modus vivendi and it was embodied in law. However, by the early 1960s the communists were violating it. When the Polish episcopate sent its historic “Letter of Reconciliation“ to West German bishops along with an invitation for them to attend the celebrations at Czestochowa in 1966 of the millenium of Polish Christianity, the Gomulka regime launched a violent Press attack on Cardinal Wyszynski. However, despite Pope Paul VI being prevented from attending, the celebrations became a great display of religious devotion and national unity, half a million people converging on the Polish national shrine at Czestochowa. Cardinal Wyszynski’s position as the nation’s religious and moral leader was even further (Continued on page 4) Cardinal Wyszynski with Cardinal Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Krakow, the later Pope John Paul II MAY-JUNE, 1981 3 MIRROR AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED In AUSTRALIA: ACN, Box 11 PO, EASTWOOD N.S.W. 2122 In GREAT BRITAIN: ACN, UK, 3-5 North Street, CHICHESTER West Sussex PO 19 1LB In IRELAND: ACN, The Norbertine Fathers, Kilnacrott, BALLYJAMESDUFF, Co. Cavan nnd: ACN, Northern Ireland Sub-Centre, PO Box No 76. BELFAST BT13 2DX In the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: ACN, PO Box 1000, EL TORO, CA 92630