Pro Memoria, vol. VII (1960)

Author: Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński

The year 1960 in the life of the Catholic Church in Poland was marked primarily by the further implementation of the Great Novena program, arranged by Primate Stefan Wyszyński, and the growing anti-church offensive of the authorities of "people's" Poland. It was then that the fateful events in Nowa Huta took place, connected with the defense of the Cross by the faithful (April 27), the so-called "Zielona Góra events," i.e. the defense of the Catholic house in Zielona Góra against liquidation (May 30), and the development by the communist authorities of an action aimed at discrediting (and dismissing from office) the Ordinary of Kielce, Bishop Czesław Kaczmarek. Czesław Kaczmarek. Repression against the Primate's Institute at Jasna Góra continued. The atmosphere of mutual relations deteriorated more and more. This is evidenced, for example, by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński's meeting with Wladyslaw Gomułka in January 1960, recounted in detail by the Primate in the pages of Pro memoria. Although during it the Primate emphasized: "We had a lot of courage to be the first to seek a way out of the new situation: Catholicism and communism. This was evidence of great courage on the part of the Episcopate, or more precisely, mine, since from the side of the Church in Poland I took responsibility for the 'agreement,'" he concluded after the meeting that it would be extremely difficult to reach an agreement with the authorities on the issue of the Church's rights and freedoms.