156 PIOTR H. KOSICKI
and Protestant Christians in which Vatican II had been called. As
Polish Catholic journalist Janusz Zabłocki worried, “Is the title
of mediatrix owed to Mary, can she be called the Mother of the
Church? Won’t emphasis on the Marian cult weaken the ecumen-
ical movement?”90
Complicating the debate further from the standpoint of the
Polish Council fathers was a disinformation campaign spearhead-
ed by Polish Communist éminence grise Zenon Kliszko. Kliszko
had been in Rome at the time of the Council’s opening in 1962,
and he had offered to host a reception for Poland’s bishops at the
embassy in Rome. Since the Holy See at the time continued to
recognize the pre–World War II Polish government that had es-
caped to London in 1939, Communist Poland had no ambassador
to the Holy See.91 Not wanting to second-guess Vatican diplomacy
by giving the Communist Polish embassy in Rome standing in
Church matters, Wyszyński declined Kliszko’s invitation. The lat-
ter would not forget this snub.
Declassified documentation from the Polish archives shows
that Kliszko directed the secret police to develop and circulate dur-
ing the Second Session a scholarly memorandum—written by real
Catholic theologians—criticizing the primate and his fellow Coun-
cil fathers for their Marian devotion. The security apparatus used
informants—including biblical experts from the state-run Acade-
my of Catholic Theology in Warsaw—to string together the Memo-
randum on Certain Aspects of the Marian Cult in Poland.92 Commis-
- Zabłocki, Dzienniki, 1:546.
- Żaryn, Stolica Apostolska wobec Polski i Polaków w latach 1944–1958 w świetle
materiałów Ambasady RP przy Watykanie: Wybór dokumentów (Warsaw: Neriton/IH
PAN, 1998). - The relevant documentation from the security apparatus archives is in
Stanisław Morawski, “Notatka dot. opracowania i sposobu wykorzystania materiałów
nt. wypaczenia przez Wyszyńskiego kultu maryjnego w Polsce,” November 14, 1963,
Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (AIPN [Archives of the Institute of National
Remembrance]), Biuro Udostępniania (BU [Bureau for Provision and Archivization
of Documents]) 0639/27; see also Cenckiewicz, “Sprawa anty-maryjnego memoriału