Pastoral Ministry of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and the Reality of the Peoples’ Republic of Poland: A Pragmatism of Resistance (1956-1970)

This publication analyzes the specificity of the denominational policy of the communist state in the period 1956–1970 through the prism of the pastoral ministry of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland. The main research goal of the article is, therefore, to expose the “post-Stalinist” stage of the history of the Church in the context of the then socio-political situation in Poland, dominated by the rule of Władysław Gomułka’s regime. The exploration of the research topic will be based on the analysis of source texts and studies using the historical method in order to reconstruct historical facts and their reinterpretation using the inductive-deductive method. Interpretation of source materials focuses on showing the role and significance not only for understanding that period of history characterized by the struggle of Cardinal Wyszyński with the atheistic state of “real socialism,” which - as a totalitarian system - used all possible means - both party and administrative - to fight with the Church and the Nation rooted in the thousand-year Christian tradition.