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Poland Relations in the 1970s and 1980s
When the "reform" regime of Edward Gierek came to power
in
1970, it took conciliatory measures to enlist church
support. The
1970s were a time of bargaining and maneuvering between a
state
increasingly threatened by social unrest and a church that
was
increasingly sure of its leadership role but still intent
on
husbanding its political capital. Between 1971 and 1974,
the
church demanded the constitutional right to organize
religious
life and culture in Poland, using education institutions,
religious groups, and the mass media. Major protest
documents
were issued in 1973 and 1976 against the weakening or
withdrawal
of state guarantees of such a right.
In 1976 church support for workers' food price riots
began a
new phase of political activism that would endure until
the end
of communist rule. In late 1977, a meeting of Gierek and
Wyszynski, prompted by continuing social unrest, promised
a new
reconciliation, but the church continued its harsh
criticism of
state interference in religious affairs. In 1978 the
selection of
Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Kraków as pope opened vital new
lines
of communication between Polish Catholics and the outside
world
and gave the Poles a symbol of hope in a period of
economic and
political decay. In 1979 the triumphal visit of Pope John
Paul II
to Poland boosted the Polish cultural self-image and
turned
international attention to Poland's political and
spiritual
struggles. The next year, the church lent vital moral
support to
the Solidarity labor movement while counseling restraint
from
violence and extreme positions. In 1981 the government
requested
that the church help it to establish a dialog with worker
factions. Needing church approval to gain support among
the
people, the government revived the Joint Episcopal and
Government
Commission, through which the church gradually regained
legal
status in the early 1980s. In 1981 the Catholic University
of
Lublin reopened its Department of Social Sciences, and in
1983
clubs of the Catholic intelligentsia reopened in sixty
cities.
Twenty-three new church-oriented periodicals appeared in
the
1980s, reaching a total printing of more than 1.2 million
copies
in 1989. Nevertheless, state censorship, paper rationing,
and
restriction of building permits provoked serious conflicts
with
the Polish government in the last decade of communist rule
(see Politics and the Media
, ch. 4).
Wyszynski died in 1981. He was replaced as primate by
the
less dynamic Cardinal Józef Glemp, who attempted to
continue the
dual policy of conciliation and advancement of religious
rights.
By 1983 several activist bishops and priests had broken
with an
official church policy they saw as too conciliatory toward
the
regime. In a 1984 meeting with Prime Minister Wojciech
Jaruzelski, Glemp again attempted to obtain official
recognition
of the church's legal status as well as freedom for
imprisoned
dissidents. Later that year, the murder of dissident
priest Jerzy
Popieluszko by Polish security agents fueled a new
confrontation
between church and state. The Jaruzelski government, which
had
met with Glemp seeking the legitimacy that would come from
renewed diplomatic relations with the Vatican, abandoned
its
conciliatory tone and returned to the pre-1970 demand that
the
church limit itself to purely spiritual matters and
censure
politically active priests. During 1985 and 1986, the
church
hierarchy replied with renewed demands for the release of
political prisoners and for constitutional guarantees of
free
assembly. By the end of 1986, 500 political prisoners had
received amnesty, and Pope John Paul II's second visit to
Poland
included a meeting with Jaruzelski--signals that relations
were
again improving.
The last two years of communist rule brought
intensified
bargaining as social unrest continued to weaken the
government's
position. The church demanded that the government open
dialogs
with opposition organizations, arguing that social and
economic
problems could not be solved without considering all
views. When
national strikes hit Poland in mid-1988, the church
attempted to
arbitrate between labor organizations and the government
and to
prevent labor from adopting radical positions. The Polish
Episcopate, the administrative body of the Polish Catholic
Church, took part in the talks that began in September
1988
between Solidarity representatives and the Ministry of
Internal
Affairs. Those talks ultimately led to restoration of
Solidarity's legal status. In early 1989, round table
discussions
between church and state representatives yielded a new law
on
church-state relations passed by the Sejm (the lower
legislative
house) in May 1989. The religious freedom guaranteed by
that law
allowed the church to resume officially its role as
intermediary
between the state and society. The law also set the stage
for
organized activity by the Catholic laity never permitted
in the
communist era. The Vatican resumed full diplomatic
relations with
the Polish government two months later.
Data as of October 1992
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