1953

Non possumus! Memorial of the Polish Episcopate to the communist authorities

Historical context

As a result of the Second World War, Poland found itself within the sphere of influence of the USSR. After defeating legal political opposition in 1947, the communist authorities started a fight against the Catholic Church, claiming that it was allied with class enemies and that it hampered the creation of a new socialist society.

In this difficult situation for the Polish Catholic Church, Stefan Wyszyński, a young, 46-year-old bishop from Lublin, took the post of the Archbishop of Warsaw and Gniezno and at the same time the Primate of Poland and President of the Polish Episcopate in 1948. He had received legal education in the past and was particularly interested in Catholic social teaching and the lives of workers before the Second World War. With the aim of maintaining certain freedoms for the Church, Wyszyński led to an agreement between the Episcopate and the communist authorities concluded on 14 April 1950.

Even though the authorities signed the document, they did not change their anti-religious politics. When Wyszyński was appointed a cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1952, the official press attacked him for his alleged anti-Polish attitude and politics. Some of the representatives of the communist authorities came up with the idea of arresting the Archbishop. On 9 February 1953, the authorities announced a decree on filling ecclesiastical positions, which allowed them to interfere in the administration sphere of the Church. This step caught Cardinal Wyszyński and the Episcopate by surprise. The Primate tried to influence the content of the document through negotiations but met with the authorities’ refusal, which forced him to write the famous Non possumus (Latin for “we cannot”) statement.

The document was written on 8 May 1953 but was not announced. Several days later, it was handed over to Bolesław Bierut, the Chair of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party and the de facto leader of the state. In his letter, Cardinal Wyszyński summarised the relations between the State and the Church, emphasised the breaches of the 1950 Agreement and asserted that the Catholic clergy was open to dialogue as long as the fundamental rights of the congregation were respected.

Primate Wyszyński was arrested several months later, in September 1953. He spent in total 3 years in isolation in various places of Poland for his objection to the politics of the communist rulers. Wyszyński was released only after Władysław Gomułka came to power as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party in October 1956.

Document text

jPaginate.js - Demo