Historical calendar – the anniversary of receiving the Lublin Bishop Stefan Wyszyński, the nomination for Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and the Primate of Poland.
Today, in our calendar, we will look at the life and activities of Stefan Wyszyński, called the “primes of the millennium”.
He was born in Zuzela close Ostrow Mazowiecki. His parents were church organist Stanisław and Julianna from Karp's house. After general school and junior advanced school, he began studying at a commercial school. From 1917 he was educated in advanced school and clergy seminary in Włocławek. In 1924 he accepted priestly ordination, after which he became a cleric at the Włocław Cathedral. He showed a very advanced level of intelligence and cognition and a love for science.
His abilities were noticed, and he was sent to survey canon law at the Catholic University of Lublin. In Lublin he worked in respective student organizations, specified as the Catholic Youth Association “Rebirth” and “Brother’s Aid”. In 1929 he defended his doctorate in which he discussed issues related to the family, Church and state in the context of education. In 1931 he left for Włocławka, where he became a lecturer in his erstwhile clergy seminary. He was eager to engage in social initiatives.
He especially enjoyed working with workers and their children, who were taught patriotic and spiritual ideas. He presided over the Catholic Workers' Youth Union; he besides worked in the Christian Trade Unions. Since 1937, he was a associate of the Primate Social Council due to his considerable cognition and experience in working matters. He was chaplain of the Labour Party. From 1932, he served as editor of the chief theological writing for clergymen of the “Khanno’s Ateneum”.
After the German attack on Poland, he had to flee Włocławek as the Gestapo sought him out in connection with erstwhile patriotic and social activities. He was hiding, among others, in the Podwarszawska Forests. Around 1940, he made contact with the conspiracy, in which he helped the wanted persons (often Jews) by making false baptism certificates. He utilized the alias "Sister Cecilia" and "Radwan III". In 1944, he was chaplain of the AK group “Kampinos”.
He then served as a priest in a conspiracy field hospital. After the war, he returned to Włocławek and his erstwhile work at the Seminary, whom he became rector. At the same time, due to the slaughter of a large number of priests by the Germans, he regularly rode around the parishes to service as a priest in them. He devoted himself entirely to pastoral and pedagogical work, which he usually finished late at night. Nevertheless, he inactive found time to establish and edit the Catholic diary “The Order of God”.
Wyszyński's large commitment did not escape the attention of his superiors. In 1946 he was appointed bishop of Lublin and Chancellor of the Catholic University of Lublin. He besides became a associate of the Committee on Studies and Press of the Polish Episcopal Conference. At the same time, with the promotion he began to be watched by UB and then SB. Despite his awareness of the service, he continued his social and preaching work. After August Hlond's death in 1948, the Pope elected him Archbishop of Warsaw-Gniezno, which active the title of the primate of Poland.
From then on, his hard fight against the communist government began, which he considered to be the only host of the country and sought to destruct the Church. The Primate did not want another bloodshed. He hoped that in exchange for tiny concessions and empty declarations condemning forest grasants he would gain the right to freedom of worship, and in the future he would win a wider scope of freedom for Poles. However, the communists were sophisticated and ruthless. In early 1949, they carried out an unsuccessful assassination effort on his life.
In turn, the 1950 agreement began to break the day after it was signed. During the Stalinist period, over 10% of the Polish clergy were imprisoned by Ubek prisons and catalysts. In addition, the Church was gradually infected with agents and provokers. In 1953 Wyszyński announced opposition to attempts to bind the Church to the state in a Protestant way. celebrated Non Possumus! became the origin of his arrest. Although the trial was dropped, he was held under home arrest for over 3 years, including in Komańcza.
Shortly after his release, he became active in organizing the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Poland. This became an chance for another confrontation with communists, who ineptly tried to suppress the celebration with the 1000th anniversary of the Polish state. He condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the repression of students after March 1968 protests, and the shooting of workers on the Coast in December 1970. He fought patriot priests and collaborators with authorities PAX.
He partially supported the improvement of the Second Vatican Council, peculiarly as regards the introduction of liturgy in national languages. However, he opposed the Vatican's attitude towards the russian Union, which he felt was besides mild. He was the patron of various cultural and patriotic efforts. He cared for the preservation of historical memory and moral formation of society, which under the influence of communism fell into dangerous habits and drugs.
In 1980, he supported the creation of the first "Solidarity" as an organization fighting for workers' rights and political freedoms. In the spring of 1981, despite his age, he became active with farmers who tried to establish their own trade union. He died on May 28.
Stefan Wyszyński was a very energetic and industrious clergyman who came to operate in hard communist times. In the absence of legitimate power, as a primate of Poland, he became the actual leader of the Nation. Decently he led him through the most severe period of Stalinist persecution. Thanks to it, we managed to halt the moral collapse of the society and build from it the strength to yet another crack at the communists that was the emergence of the first, to a large degree authentic "Solidarity".
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
