From the Calendar of Polish Ecumenism

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Volume 7 Issue 6 Article 3

12-1987

Celestyn Napiorkowski

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Recommended Citation Napiorkowski, Celestyn (1987) "From the Calendar of Polish Ecumenism," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 7 : Iss. 6 , Article 3. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol7/iss6/3

This Article, Exploration, or Report is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FROM THE CALENDAR OF POLISH ECUMENISM

by Celestyn Napiorkowski, OFM Conv .

Twenty years after the end of the Vatiean Council we are looking back upon our Polish ecumenism. Rummaging among ecumenical cale.ndars, we find ou t that it was a difficult period of getting to know our selves, causing wounds that were hard to heal, a time of mistrust fed with ever new facts, of mutual resentment which both sides considered justified; of strangeness, which could not be overcome by the Gospel,

which is our common possession. • • • However, realism makes one perceive light s, rejoice over them, and praise the Father of Light for them. Have the post-Council years not been a period of noteworthy ecumenical precedents for Christianity in Poland?

1965 Beginnings of nationwide Catholic ecumenical activity: the first meetings of theologians and ministers (separately) from all dioceses interested in ecumenical. problems. Since that time such meetings have been held every year, drawing all the dioceses into the circle of ecumenical matters.

1966 Establishment of the Episcopal Commission for the Unity of Chris tians (February 10).

1967 The first ecumenical symposium of a scientific character in Poland, organized by the Polish Theological Society (November 16-17).. Th e. first issue of the Catholic ecumenical quarterly Biuletyn Ekumen iczny (in typescript).

1968 The first of the series of ecumenical pastoral letters of Bishop Herbert Bednorz, ordinary bishop of Katowice (his predecessor, Stan islaw Adamski, issued an ecumenical pastoral letter in 1959 and 1967).

1969 The first ecumenical letter of the Polish Episcopate for the Week of Common Prayer for the Un ification of Christians. The bishops wrote i.a. : "We shall try to do it ourselves and we shall also teach all the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church to think, speak, and write about you with respect, friendliness, love, and truth. We ask

34 you to do the same; we shall be grateful to you for each kind word about the Catholic Church, its shepherds, and the faithful that will be written in your ecclesiastical and theological periodicals." The first joint ecumenical mass in Katowice diocese (January, Drogomysl).

1970 Establishment of the Section of Comparative and Ecumenical Theol ogy at the Lub lin Catholic University.

1971 For the first time an official delegat ion of the Polish Ecumeni cal Council participated in masses organized by the Roman Catholic Church on the occasion of the Week of Common Prayer for the Unity of Christians . The Episcopal Commiss ion for the Unity of Christians proposed that the Churches affiliated in the Polish Ecumenical Council start bilateral dialogues on baptism (January 9). A letter of that Commission to the Catholic Church of the Maria vites in Felicjanow with the words of forgiving and a request for forgiveness (August 19). The first visit to Poland of the secretary general of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, Dr. E. C. Blake, at the invitation of the Polish Ecumenical Council, ended with a meeting with the chairman of the Episcopal Commission for the Unity of Christians (just like the visit of the subsequent secretary general Philip Potter in 1982). It marked the beginn ing of the ecumenical exchange of representatives of individual Churches . The Cath olic side recipro cated with a visit of Father Jerome Hamer, secretary of the Vatican Secretariat for the Unity of Christians (January 16, 1972).

1972 The first aborted attempt at estab lishing cooperat ion with the Polish Branch of the Bible Society concerning ecumenical translation of the Bible.

1974 The first joint celebrations of the Week of Common Prayer for the Unity of Christians (at the initiative of the Roman Catholic Church). The first meeting of representatives of the Polish Ecumenical Council with representatives of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism (May 22, seat of the Polish Ecumenical Council); five Catholics headed by Bishop Henryk Gulbinowicz, the then ordinary bishop in Bialystok, and four represen tatives of the Polish Ecumenical Council headed by the Reverend Profe ssor Witold Benedyktowicz.

35 1975 For the fi:i:-st time in the history of the Lublin Catholic Univer sity a theologian from the Christian Theological Academy (the Reverend Professor Woldemar Gastpary, Lutheran, rector of the Christian -Theolo gical Academy) was appointed a reviewer of a habilitation treatise. For the first time in the history of Polish synods a diocesan synod (Katowice) devoted a whole extensive resolution to ecumenism, and it did so in the spirit of genuine and bold ecumenism.

1977 .. The Jo int Commission of the Polish Ecumen ical Council and the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism set up the Sub-Commission for Dialogue, charging it with doctrinal matters.

1980 For the first time in history a Roman Catholic ordinary bishop ordered his priests to give Protestants access to all Catholic Churches in the diocese "under the principle of absolute disinter estedness, for the performance of their religious ceremonies, espe cially weddings, funerals, and even regular church services wherever there are no Protestant churches" (Decision of the conference of the deans of Opole diocese of December 16, 1980, reminded in the letter of Opole ordinary bishop A. Nossol of January 28, 1981). The Gdansk Accords of August 1981 envisaged not on ly Catholic Holy Mass radio broadcasts, but also broadcasts of services for the fai thful of other denominations. As the second part of the provisions could not long come into being, the Roman Catholic Church interceded (1981) on behalf of broadcasts of services for the faithful of other denominations (the first broadcast took place on January 24, 1982). The first joint translation of an ecumenical book for services, "Ecumen ical calendar of prayers," which was very favorably received in various Churches.

1980/81 For the first time a Roman Catholic theologian (the Reverend Profe ssor Alfons Skowronek from the Academy of Catholic Theology) lectured at the Christian Theological Academy (winter semester; sub 1 ject: Ecclesiology of John Calvin).

1981 For the first time in history official representatives of the Orthodox Church and Protestant Churches in Poland, including their heads, attended the funeral of a Roman Catholic Primate, extending

36 words of sympathy and heartfelt grief (May 3 1). Representatives .of various Churches gathered at the coffin of Cardinal Wyszynski. Representatives of fraternal Churches extended to the Roman Cath olic Church moving words of solidarity in the suffering after the attempt on the life of John Paul II. For the first time in history top represen tatives of fraternal Churches attended the ceremony of enthronement of a new Primate, who on the next day (September 25) received, at the seat of Warsaw bish ops, members of the Presidium of the Polish Ecumenical Council, heads and representatives of Churches affiliated in the Council, and then revisited them at the seat of the Polish Ecumenical Council.

1982 The Polish Primate delivered a speech during the liturgy in the Orthodox cathedra l in Warsaw (concluding the Week of Common Prayer for the Un ity of Christians). Metropolitan Bazyli decorated the Primate with a medallion depicting the image of Our Lady and asked him to give pastoral blessing to the congregation.

1983 For the first time in history a Roman Catholic bishop organized an ecumenical mass, attended not only by representatives of fraternal Churches, but also by representatives of the Jewish faith, Buddhism, and Islam, with their prayers (ordinary bishop of Lublin Boleslaw Pylak--November 2--the mass at Majdanek in connection with the plans to construct: an ecumenical Temple of Peace). Establ ishment of the first Ecumenical Institute in Poland, which has been functioning at the Lublin Catholic University since October 1. For the first time in the history of Poland, Catholic theologians (Academy of Catholic Theology and Lublin Catholic University) organ ized symposia on Martin Luther, with the participation of Lutherans, and Lutherans accepted for printing Catholic papers on Martin Luther, delivered at the symposium at the Lublin Catholic University on Novem ber 19. The release of the first issue of the quarterly Studia ! Dokumen !l Ecumeniczne (edited by three Lutherans and one Catholic).

1985 For the first time in the history of Poland a higher Catholic school conferred an honorary doctor's degree on a theologian of a different confession. On June 8, an honorary doctor's title was conferred on the metropolitan of Australia, Harkianakis Stylianos, and

37 cardinal Jan Willebrands, chairman of the Sekretariat for the Un ity of Christians .

1986 A fraternai meeting between a Roman Catholic bishop, Wtadystaw Miziol ek, and a bishop of the Old-Catholic Church of the Mariavites took place during the visitation of one of the Catholic parishes in Warsaw archdiocese.

1 nr. Karol Karski, member of the Lutheran Church, lectured at the Academy of Catholic Theology in 1984 (summer semester) on the history of the ecumenical movement, and in the academic year 1986-87 started permanent collaboration, lecturing on "The history of the ecumenical movement and doctrines of Protestant Churches."