PAX Association

PAX Association

The PAX Association (Polish: Stowarzyszenie PAX) was a pro-communist secular Catholic organization created in 1947 in the People's Republic of Poland. In 1953, PAX gave its support to the Stalinist show trial of the Kraków Curia, and took over the publication of the Catholic weekly magazine Tygodnik Powszechny – until the Polish October of 1956. The Association ceased to function only after the collapse of communism, and in 1993 was reestablished under a different name: the Catholic Association "Civitas Christiana", this time, with a true Catholic agenda.[1]

Contents

Communist era

Following the Soviet takeover, PAX Association had been formed with the intention to undermine grass-roots support for the Roman Catholic Church in Stalinist Poland. Created by Bolesław Piasecki during the Stalinist rein of terror, it approved the trial and imprisonment of many Polish clergymen, among them Bishop Czesław Kaczmarek and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. PAX attempted to compete with the conservative clergy of the interwar era over public policy issues, especially after the arrest of hundreds of priests by the state security in early 1950s.[2] The government gave it total control over the Polish branch of the Caritas relief organisation. According to Norman Davies PAX was an NKVD front organisation, set up to win over Polish Catholics to communism, and to break their links to the Vatican.[3] It maintained a presence in the Sejm, winning for example five seats in the 1969 election.[4]

Reforms

After 1956, together with many other similar government initiatives, it was toned down and took a more compromising position, in some regards even supporting the leniency for the anti-communist resistance in Poland, even though it firmly endorsed the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland until the fall of communism. After 1982 it was a member of the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth. Throughout the decades after its creation and the death of Stalin, it continued to steadily lose power and influence, although it still exists in modern Poland.

At all times it was financed by the government as a fake opposition. There were number of collaborators from within the clergy, who were lured by free state benefits, including lavish state pensions (unavailable to clergy otherwise).

Notable members

References

  1. ^ Stowarzyszenie "PAX". 2007 Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
  2. ^ Kościół w Polsce po tzw. procesie kurii krakowskiej (Church in Poland following the so called Trial of the Kraków Curia). Photo-exibit. Institute of National Remembrance, Poland. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
  3. ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland Volume 2: 1795 to the Present, Columbia University Press, 1982, p. 579
  4. ^ Nicholas Bethell, Gomulka, Penguin Books, 1972, p. 244
v · d · eCoat of Arms of Poland History of the People's Republic of Poland
1945–1948 Early post-war
1948–1956 Sovietisation
under Bierut's rule
1956–1970 Gomułka's
autarchic communism
1970–1980 Gierek's
international opening
Letter of 59 · June 1976 protests · Workers' Defence Committee · Flying University · Solidarity (Polish trade union) · Jastrzębie-Zdrój 1980 strikes · Lublin 1980 strikes · 1981 warning strike in Poland · Summer 1981 hunger demonstrations in Poland · Gdańsk Agreement
1981–1989 Jaruzelski's
autocratic rule and demise
Martial law in Poland · Military Council of National Salvation · Pacification of Wujek · 1982 Demonstrations · Orange Alternative · Polish political and economic reforms referendum, 1987 · 1988 Polish strikes · Polish Round Table Agreement


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