168 PIOTR H. KOSICKI
Polish Workers’ Agency—was making the rounds of various Ital-
ian journals, spreading disinformation about Zawieyski’s visit.126
Some heard that it was connected to the breaking news of Nikita
Khrushchev’s resignation as Soviet premier, others that it was
a prelude to Poland’s answer to the Partial Agreement that the
Holy See had just reached with Hungary.127
These rumors apparently angered Wyszyński even further.
Meanwhile, Zawieyski stewed in isolation, pouring into the pag-
es of his diary his frustrated sense of mission on behalf of Pol-
ish Catholicism: “I’m doing this for the Church; I’m doing it for
Poland, for our society, for our clergy, for the improvement of
spiritual life in Poland. I will be happy if the facts can speak for
themselves; I can remain in the shadows, absent from this im-
portant matter.”128
Once the audience finally came to pass, Zawieyski left Rome
thinking that he might have single-handedly engineered the
normalization of relations between the Holy See and the Peo-
ple’s Republic of Poland. When he returned to Poland, however,
Gomułka said the following to him: “The government will not
address itself to the Vatican for the normalization of relations.
Any demand for the government to address itself officially in
this matter will trigger a rejection. We know that the Vatican ad-
dressed itself to Hungary, to Czechoslovakia, and to Yugoslavia.
Why should we be any worse?”
The ZNAK activists could not overcome their frustration. The
episcopate, the Holy See, and the PZPR all essentially had the
same priority: maintaining Poland’s prewar status as a “nuncia-
- Krasicki had already prepared an extensive report for the PZPR’s Central
Committee before the start of the First Session: Ignacy Krasicki, “Notatka w sprawie
sytuacji w Watykanie przed II Watykańskim Soborem Powszechnym—po wizycie
kardynała Wyszyńskiego w Rzymie,” March 19, 1962, Archiwum Akt Nowych (Ar-
chive of Modern Records, Poland), PZPR 237/Y-367. - “Nuovo tentativo della Polonia per un incontro con la Chiesa,” Il Tiempo,
November 13, 1964; Il Symbolo, November 13, 1964. - Zawieyski, Dzienniki, 2:380.