Published: 2024-09-02

Critical analysis of archival documentation on rev. Aleksander Woźny – pastor of the parish of pw. st. Jan Kanty in Poznań, in the context of the liquidation of “Caritas” in 1950

Wojciech Mueller
Kultura-Media-Teologia
Section: Artykuły i rozprawy
https://doi.org/10.21697/kmt.2024.58.12

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present a critical analysis of archival documentation on rev. Aleksander Woźny – pastor of the parish of pw. st. Jan Kanty in Poznań, in the context of the pastoral letter of Polish bishops on the liquidation of “Caritas” in 1950, which the then authorities of the Polish state did not agree to read. The priest who told the content of the Episcopate's proclamation from the pulpit, although he did not read the letter, was arrested on the basis of the decree of June 13, 1946 on particularly dangerous crimes during the period of state reconstruction and was imprisoned at ul. Młyńska in Poznań.              

A study of the collected material from the Institute of National Remembrance in Poznań, as well as from the Archdiocesan Archives in Poznań and the Archives of the parish of st. Jan Kanty in Poznań, supplemented with literature on the historical period in question, reflects the repressions of the communist authorities against the Catholic clergy. The case presented in this study concerning rev. Woźny, shows only a fragment of all the persecutions that the communist apparatuses of the People's Republic of Poland used against the Catholic Church. These activities were supported by the successively expanded apparatus of repression, thanks to which the ruling party tried to incapacitate the citizens of post-war Poland, increasing police terror and persecution of the opposition and pre-war public activists, which lasted until Stalin's death in 1953.

Keywords:

liquidation of “Caritas”, communist regime, persecution of the clergy, arrest of rev. Aleksander Woźny

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