History of Poland in twentieth century Research Papers (original) (raw)

Over the past 30 years, great progress has been made in research on the history and role of religious institutions in the history of Poland as well as in the lives of Poles. The research deals with the vast majority of the Catholic Church, with which a significant proportion of Polish citizens still identify. However, research focuses mainly on the period of greatest difficulty for the Catholic Church, the Second World War and the era of the Polish People’s Republic. Unfortunately, any research on earlier history during the Second Polish Republic has been pushed into the background. One of the most interesting and simultaneously least known aspects of the Catholic Church in the diocese of Chełmno is associated with religious orders and religious congregations.

As a result of the process of secularization commenced by the King of Prussia in the second half of the 18th century and continued by the Prussian (German) government into the 19th century, all monasteries, and thus male religious orders, in the diocese of Chełmno (German: Culm) ceased to exist. Thus their history, spanning hundreds of years, came to an end. In the second half of the 19th century and in the early 20th century members of various orders and congregations were only temporarily present in Pomerania, when invited by parish priests for pastoral missions. The character of the lands, which belonged to the German Empire until 1920, meant that after a shorter or longer gap the orders had to build their position here from scratch: build religious houses, monasteries, chapels and churches, so as to rebuild their importance. For this reason, in the country-wide ranking, the Chełmno diocese placed 13th in Poland, with 118 monks. The authorities of individual assemblies, and later the monks themselves, had to win the favor of not just the lay people (with whom the monks worked and whom they served), but also of the diocesan clergy. This was a concern to state authorities; for example, efforts to establish a Jesuit facility in Gdynia took almost ten years. In the first period, until 1926, when Augustine Rosentreter was the head of the diocese, the Redemptorists came to Toruń, Piarists to Wysoka village near Gdańsk, and the Verbites settled in Górna Grupa near Grudziądz. Under Bishop Stanisław Okoniewski (1926–1939), and with his consent, the Congregation of the Mission and the Society of the Catholic Apostolate arrived in Chełmno, and Jesuits as well as Conventual Franciscans settled in the newly built Polish city of Gdynia. Shortly before the war, Salesians settled in Rumia, Michaelite Fathers came to Toruń, and the Missionaries of the Holy Family came to the village of Wielki Klincz near Kościerzyna. The Resurrectionist Congregation created a facility in Dębki. All these orders began their presence in the diocese of Chełmno by building their own residences, convents, monasteries and churches, which required large sums of money as well as labor by the monks themselves.

From the beginning, they ministered and served as missionaries in and around the cities and towns where they had settled. Societies and religious organizations for the faithful were created at monasteries and convents. Moreover, clergymen from orders and congregations pursued social, charitable and educational activities. Jesuits, Redemptorists, Verbites and Pallottines opened grammar schools, and eventually high schools for boys where students were also prepared to become priests. As far as publishing was concerned, a very significant role was played by the Verbites, who opened a large publishing center, print house and editorial office for numerous magazines. The Conventual Franciscans also had their own publishing center and editorial office in Gdynia.

The Third Reich’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the outbreak of World War II put an end to the activities of Pomeranian monks. The German occupation authorities, in line with racist and anti-Polish Nazi policy, saw the Polish intelligentsia (including Catholic clergymen and monks) as one of their main enemies. Monasteries, churches and school facilities were taken over by the Germans and members of orders and congregations were arrested or banished from those parts of the Polish state which were incorporated into Germany. Many monks were murdered (in Piaśnica and other locations) or perished in concentration camps (Stutthof, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz). The few who survived the war mostly returned to their posts in 1945. The time frame of the book is the period in which the Chełmno diocese, in its modified borders of 1925 (the creation of the Gdańsk diocese), existed within the Polish state.

The basis for the considerations is formed by source material stored mainly in the archives of specific orders, provincial authorities and religious houses in the Chełmno diocese. This material was supplemented by sources obtained from state archives.

The first chapter, introducing the topic, presents the situation in the Chełmno diocese after its incorporation into the Polish state in 1920. This applies in particular to the attitude, personal policy, development of the parish network and spiritual life, and relations with state institutions, initially under German bishop Augustine Rosentreter, and subsequently his successor, bishop Stanisław Okoniewski. The second chapter presents the complicated gradual settlement of individual orders and religious congregations in the Chełmno diocese, which became an integral part of the Polish state after the German partition only in 1920. For some orders, the matter of settling in the new area was only a formality, for others it was a long road that lasted years. The reasons also varied. The third chapter presents two crucial issues. Firstly, the examination of groups of male religious orders themselves, their territorial and social origin as well as the education and professional experience of priests and religious brothers who arrived and worked in this region over the years. Secondly, the presentation of types of pastoral work of the religious orders and their members, its subjects and scope, as well as the reception of religious work, among both the faithful and diocesan priests. The last chapter, deals with the creation, development and activity of schools managed by the orders in the Górna, Toruń, Chełmno and Gdynia.