The Polish test: Roman Catholic views of 20th century Polish history

Scholars of Polish affairs are fond of debating the significance of that country's modern history for the wider world. Does the Polish sojourn through the 20th century illustrate general lessons applicable beyond the national frontiers, or has it been unique and atypical? Has Poland functioned as the quintessence of our time, a 'laboratory of history' 1 for the great themes of the contemporary age, or has that same intensity of its experience rendered it incomparable, even eccentric? While no group exerts a monopoly over the idea that Central Europe, and Poland in particular, has acted as a sort of testing ground of history, throughout the years commentators from the Roman Catholic world have accorded special attention to this questions, and with good reason: the Poles are a vital part of their flock, and the affairs ofthat nation often have raised issues of urgency to the entire Church. As a result, spokesmen for the Roman faith have made more than their share of observations on the Polish condition of recent years and its paradigmatic or exceptional nature. The demanding and dramatic history of Poland in the past nine de6ades needs no lengthy recounting. The country has played a role of unwanted prominence in many of the most dismal and momentous chapters of our times the world wars, totalitarian terror and genocide, the ravages of Nazism and Communism interwoven with . tenacious efforts toward national survival and emancipation, and punctuated by alternating disasters and triumphs. Of course, the Catholic Church too has passed through a century of unusual change and turmoil. In that time it has become a less European, more genuinely global institution; undergone doctrinal challenge and transformation, from the 'Modernist' dispute to the innovations and repercussions of the Second Vatican Council; absorbed the buffets of