Roman Catholic Church and Greek Catholic Clergy in Relations to the Orthodox Church in Poland between 1951 and 1970

Abstract

After World War II, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sought to liquidate the Greek Catholic Church. In 1946, a non-constitutional synod was held in Lviv which liquidated the Greek Catholic Church and incorporated it into the Russian Orthodox Church. Similarly, Romanian communist authorities liquidated the Greek Catholic Church in 1948 and the same took place in the Czech Republic two years later. In the Polish People’s Republic, the authorities did not even try to make the liquidation bear the marks of legality. The communist authorities considered that resettlement of the hierarchs and most of the clergy as well as the Greek Catholic followers to the Soviet Ukraine and the rest of them to the west and north of Poland solved the problem. However, the priests and their followers made every effort to re-establish the Greek Catholic Church in Poland. Greek Catholic clergy tried to find their faithful in the place of settlement and, if possible, start their pastoral service in the native rite. This is how regular services in Chrzanów began. Taking advantage of the kindness of some Roman Catholic priests, Greek Catholic liturgies began to take place in Cyganek, Bytów and Kwasów. The faithful, who were deprived of priests, also began to organize their own religious life. They met in larger groups in private homes, where they prayed and sang religious songs. They tried to celebrate the holidays according to the Julian calendar and in accordance with the native tradition. Because of that, the communist authorities decided to make the Greek Catholics convert to the Orthodox Catholic Church. Therefore, Orthodox Catholic institutions were opened for the Greek Catholics on the basis of the Greek Catholic Church in Poland. Despite initial success, the initiative ended in failure. Most of the Orthodox Catholic institutions collapsed after Greek Catholic liturgy had been resumed as the faithful returned to their church.