140 PIOTR H. KOSICKI
the fundamental concern was that the Catholic Church would
only adopt a façade of reform so as to appeal more effectively to
the modern world, while in fact shedding none of its dogmatism.
For revisionist Marxists, the pastoral traditionalism of the Pol-
ish episcopate seemed less “dangerous” than open Catholicism,
which for them carried the potential of a wolf in sheep’s clothing:
a repressive institution cloaked in a falsely modern aesthetic and
idiom. Kołakowski’s students would debate this issue with the
Polish laity throughout the conciliar era.
The Polish Episcopal Presence in Rome
When John XXIII’s call for an ecumenical council reached Polish
bishops in 1959, they were just learning the limits of de-Staliniza-
tion. Religious education in primary and secondary schools, re-
introduced into public classrooms in 1956, was threatened and
ultimately phased out between 1959 and 1961. Permits for the con-
struction of new churches were becoming impossible to obtain.44
An abstinence campaign launched by Rev. Franciszek Blachnicki
—soon to become known as the founder of Poland’s Oaza (Oasis)
movement—was under attack.45 Primate Wyszyński, who had con-
cluded a new memorandum of understanding with the party-
state in late 1956 and had encouraged Catholics to vote in the elec-
tions of 1957, soon began to regret those actions.
And yet Wyszyński proved extremely adept at mobilizing Pol-
ish clergy following his release from house arrest. The primate
believed that his task was to square two separate processes: on
the one hand, Poland’s participation in the universal Church’s
aggiornamento; and, on the other, the singularly Polish experi-
- Dudek and Gryz, Komuniści i Kościół w Polsce, 147–79.
- Andrzej Grajewski, “Oskarżony ks. Franciszek Blachnicki,” Więź, no. 511
(2001): 112–28; Esther Peperkamp, “ ‘There Can Be No Vacation from God’: Chil-
dren’s Retreats, Leisure, and Social Change in Poland,” Religion, State, and Society 34,
no. 3 (2006): 271–86.