Editorials

...Is the church redefining or expanding its mediating role in Poland - or is it trying to recover an exclusive role as voice of the Polish people...

...A stalemated Walesa was released, true, but there was no general amnesty, and the church backed away from support of the November 10 general strike called by the underground...

...And how should these messages be reconciled with reports of agreements between the Vatican and the Jaruzelski regime prior to the visit...

...he can't inspire them to work hard there...

...PAPAL DEFIANCE, POLISH DILEMMAS FROM OUR perspective, the pope's journey to Poland seemed to have been arranged in a mood of concession, was carried out in a blaze of defiance, and has ended in a fog of confusion...

...He can frighten laborers into plants...

...Western sanctions have hurt, though not much...

...To many Poles, and many clergy, that appeared nothing less than collaboration with a hated regime...

...Still, it is hard to imagine what meaningful form of independent union this government could find acceptable...

...The message remains true three decades later later...

...How can a Communist dictatorship and Soviet satellite regime live with truly independent trade unions any more today than two years ago...

...Such questions proliferate...

...Dramatically, the pope's words shattered the line he has sought to maintain between the pursuit of social justice and "partisan politics " Jaruzelski trembled, and so evidently did many at the Vatican who prefer proper diplomacy and abhor bold public gambles...

...It seems likely, and not - given the threat of Soviet intervention - inappropriate...

...Productivity fell another eight percent last year...

...Solidarity leadership...

...Answers to them come harder...

...The upcoming show trials of six intellectuals of the Workers' Defense Council (KOR) may prove a miscalculation...

...The population, freshly aroused by the papal visit, remains resistant...

...In any case, the next move would seem to be Jaruzelski's Despite Soviet might over the border, he's in a tough fix...

...Was there a prior bargain between the Vatican and the general, something like an offer of cooperation, an admission that Walesa should assume low visibility, and an assurance that some form of revived independent labor union would remain under the tutelage of the church - all in return for lifting martial law, a limited amnesty, and other reforms...

...Prior to the papal visit, it appeared that Cardinal Glemp - and the pope - had gotten very little, and lost much, in return for the government's consent to the papal visit...

...Designed to sever the link between the intelligentsia and the workers, the trials will probably reforge it, and contribute to the regime's image of illegitimacy...

...What should be stressed in the pope's messages to his people, his endorsement of the right to free associations or his appeals for accommodation...

...In the 1944 Warsaw rising, the motto of the Home Army was "Polska Walczaca" - Poland is still fighting...

...What understanding was reached between church and state...

...Stage by stage, our own mood has shifted from foreboding at what John Paul II had entangled himself in, astonishment and admiration at his bold defense of human rights, puzzlement at the contradictory reports of a church-state pact, and concern over the still very unsettled future...

...Then the pope actually arrived, speaking boldly and renewing communications and self-confidence among the banned union's vast constituency...

...moveover, the idea that the church implicate itself in forcing unions to hew a line set by the government is a bad one...