Priest patriots: Nationalizing the Past of Pro-Government Clergy in Poland 1950-1956

• In Event: Remains of the Past: The Catholic Church in the Communist Regimes of East Central Europe II

Abstract

The establishment of associations gathering catholic clergy in support of the communist governments across Eastern Europe after 1945 was a widespread phenomenon. In Poland such association was established in January 1950 following a gathering of 1200 priests in Wrocław (Breslau) in autumn the previous year. This group was quickly named “priests patriots” highlighting their “civic” engagement in public affairs as well as owing to the fact that their organization was a branch of the veterans’ association – ZBOWiD (Związek Bojowników o Wolność i Demokrację).
My paper will be focused on the memory politics of the Clergy Commission of ZBOWiD which aimed at justifying the political engagement of the clergy through rooting it in the recent but more importantly, in the more distant history. In the former case, the press of the Clergy Commission stressed the losses of the clergy during the Nazi occupation (in the dioceses of Poznań and Włocławek they amounted to 30% and 50% respectively). Anti-German rallies were held across Poland and special commemorative events were held in places like former concentration camp in Auschwitz.
However, it was not only the recent past “priests patriots” turned to. Across the press and public speeches made by ZBOWiD members they refer to the traditions of Polish “jacobin priests” from XVIII century – a radical movement of Polish Enlightenment as well as to clergymen conspirators of XIX century stressing their engagement in the struggle for national liberation. This rhetoric aligned with a broader phenomenon of presenting the new communist elites as heirs of the deeply-rooted traditions of Polish radicalism.
The study of memory politics of Polish progressive priests movement shows an interesting attempt to nationalize the identity of a movement that run against the widely recognized traditions. Priest Patriots’ case is yet another example of the search of the communist regime of its national legitimization – to use Marcin Zaremba’s term.

Author

• Przemysław Pazik, HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities (Hungary) / U of Warsaw (Poland)