More Government Pressure
Heneghan, Tom
in-chief has given you an order." For Haig there was no law higher than the wishes of his master; for Kissinger there is no intellectual activity of more value than joining in the hallelujah...
...Laymen could become increasingly active critics of party policy, using the Church's political influence as their base while allowing the episcopate to keep a discreet distance from partisan politics...
...Although they represent a more liberal and intellectual Catholicism than that of the Polish episcopate, the KIK and Wiez groups essentially agree with the Church's critical stand vis-a-vis the Warsaw government...
...For its part, the ODiSS group was able to set up rival laymen's organizations in Warsaw and Lublin and assume control of the KIK chapter in Poznan...
...At the same time as these rivalries were unfolding, Polish workers struck in protest against the government's dramatic price-increase proposals...
...Because of the protests, the amendments were watered down, but there was still a dispute within Znak--the group of five Catholic deputies in the Polish parliament --about support for the new clauses...
...At the moment, aggiornamento might not seem so urgent a need in Poland...
...Communism is indeed gaining strength in southern Europe and is doing so because of the weaknesses of the existing regimes...
...The KIK Coordination Bureau, which acted as the liaison between the five KIK chapters across Poland, was closed by government order last June...
...Several struggles within the laymen's movement ensued...
...Intellectuals and churchmen immediately responded with letters of protest, arguing that the amendments would legalize Soviet influence over Poland and provide a legal basis for discrimination against believers...
...The problems of the KIK and Wiez began in December, when their leaders were informed they could no longer use Libella funds to finance their activities...
...This step was formalized in January when the government issued a decree transferring all Lihella shares to the Polish Club of Catholic Intelligentsia (PKIK), a rival group set up last year by the ODiSS group...
...Party leader Edward Gierek suggested that the Constitution be amended to codify the leading role of the party, proclaim Poland's ties to the Soviet Union "unbreakable," and make a citizen's rights dependent on the fulfillment of his duties...
...The Germans, militarists themselves, have been able to contain our largesse of arms...
...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 MARY OLIVER MEAT Driving through farm country, you know When there are pigs nearby: The smell, rank as an old carpet Mice have lived in damply, Rolls through the windows...
...It remains to be seen whether they will be around to lead it...
...It is 22 July 1977:454 not clear whether this is true or not...
...It is, in fact, the latest in a series of government measures designed to split the laymen's movement and eventually undermine some of the Catholic influence still strong in Poland's communist society...
...And in his quiet kitchen, Luminous with hope, winged with philosophy, he lays The bacon in the pan...
...It's breaking the mirror because you don't like what you see in it...
...It's all nonsense, of course...
...Their members have developed a socially conscious critique of Polish society without falling back on the traditional anti-Communism of the episcopate...
...LibeUa shares are important for the financial support they provide Warsaw's lay groups...
...The traditionalist Znak leaders around Stomma and the pro-episcopate weekly Tygodnik Powszechny argued that Lubienski and his supporters had no fight to present themselves as the real Znak circle, and demanded they change their name...
...The minority won...
...Those weaknesses come in part from American militaristic dabbling in European economies...
...Parliamentary elections were held soon afterward, and Stomma was prevented from running...
...Lubienski, with obvious government approval, succeeded him as Znak parliamentary leader...
...But, because the shareholders represent competing Catholic laymen's groups, the dispute is anything but internal...
...By shifting the Libella funds to the ODiSS group, the government evidently hopes to deepen the developing split within the Catholic intelligentsia...
...The Italians, profoundly anti-militarist, have been ruined by it...
...TOM HENEGHAN (Tom Heneghan, a previous contributor, is a senior analyst ]or Czechoslovakia and Poland in the research department o] Radio Free Europe in Munich...
...Commonweal: 455...
...Although there were no formal bonds between the laymen's organizations and groups such as the Committee for the Defense of the Workers, the government suspected that Libella funds were being used by Warsaw laymen to support the jailed workers...
...Under normal circumstances, the internal problems of a Polish chemical firm would hardly attract attention...
...When it does, though, the KIK will find it dif-, ficuit to keep up its schedule of lectures, discussions and other activities, and Wiez will have it even harder...
...But Polish society is undergoing rapid changes brought on by urbanization, education and econorrtic development, and these changes .are bound to affect the Church as well...
...Until recently, seven of the thirteen shares were controlled by the Warsaw Club of Catholic Intelligentsia (KIK), one of five such social and cultural centers around the country...
...Their undogmatic outlook makes it possible for them to agree with party policy in some cases but criticize it, from mostly leftist positions, in others...
...Within the conservative Polish Church, these two groups represent the most influential spokesmen for an open, critical Catholicism...
...It is significant that the KIK and Wiez are the targets of official pressure...
...Although a court decision in March legally abolished the old Libella ownership arrangements, the withdrawal of funds from the KIK and Wiez has not yet come about...
...Hundreds of protestors lost their jobs and many of them were brought to trial for their participation in the strikes...
...As a result, the KIK and Wiez groups have been at the center of the Polish Church's modest "dialogue with the modern age," and have brought about some dialogue with noB-believers norreally put off by the policies of the episcopate...
...Wiez, an ecumenical monthly magazine, was financed by the profits from its three shares, while the remaining three shares supported the Center for Documentation and Social Studies (ODiSS), a research organization which also publishes its own monthly...
...When they do, the type of dialogue the KIK and Wiez groups have been promoting could play an important role...
...This split first became evident during the constitutional controversy early last year...
...ODiSS, however, has become increasingly closer to the party line on several recent political issues...
...The traditional piety of the people remains strong, church attendance is high, and there are more than enough vocations to fill the ranks of the clergy...
...Coming so soon after the constitutional dispute, however, any sort of laymen's support for the workers represented a serious problem for the party leadership...
...In fact, Wiez might have to fold o~ce the funds are finally cut...
...The government evidently felt it had to minimize the influence these groups could have...
...for Kissinger there is no intellectual activity of more value than joining in the hallelujah chorus in praise of authority, preferably his own...
...FgAIqK GETLEIN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 IN POLAND IOBE GOVERNI IENT PRESSURE Libella is a small Warsaw company which produces floor waxes, cleaning fluids and cosmetics...
...Rising from sleep, man Knows there is no truth without Violence, no beauty without grossness...
...An ODiSS supporter, Konstanty Lubienski, argued for Catholic support of the amendments, while the Znak leader Stanislaw Stomma opposed them...
...In the final voting on the changes, Stomma's abstention was the only dissenting voice...
...At its annual meeting in May, the Warsaw KIK removed all ODiSS representatives from its board of directors while keeping Wiez people in prominent positions...
...Because of a political dispute last year, a minority of its shareholders went to court to wrest control of the company from the majority...
...With official preference and funding behind the small but pro-government ODiSS group, the bridge which many laymen were trying to build between the traditional Church outlook and modern Polish society will come under heavy strain...
...This made it even more difficult for the independent laymen's groups to keep contact with each other...
...Among the intellectuals who provided legal and financial support for the jailed workers and their families were a number of KIK members...
...From their world Of fences and gluttonous feeding, The wallowers fatten and stink And get ready to die...
Vol. 104 • July 1977 • No. 15
