JOEY BELLEZA WRITER’S COMMENTS In Professor Jorge Aquino’s class, Panamerican Saints: Hagiography and Politics, we considered sociological and religious factors which fueled the charismatic spirit of critical historical fi gures and their effects on popular movements. The fi nal project was a textual synthesis of our studies on a chosen “saint.” In choosing to study Pope John Paul II and his infl uence on Poland’s Solidarity movement, my fi rst course paper covered the relevant historical events of his papacy. While comprehensive in scope, my personal affection for the pontiff signifi cantly tinted certain parts, giving the appearance of a “fl uffy hagiography,” in Prof. Aquino’s words. He urged me to “adopt a more critical posture” as well as to articulate a proposition I asserted without signifi cant expansion: the role of Catholicism as a unifying force in Polish history. My entry was my fi nal project for this class. It is a reading of the life and activism of John Paul II and how he used his personal charisma, the power of his offi ce, and his understanding of Polish ecclesiastical history to effectively confront Soviet oppression. —Joey Belleza INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENTS The course seeks to reassess traditional ideas of spirituality to consider how spirituality is grounded in everyday life through what liberation theology would call “liberating historical projects.” Thus, we consider how charismatic social movements create a highly politicized spiritual fi eld in the service of social change. Mr. Belleza decided to take up a study of Pope John Paul II, early drafts of which I critiqued for its uncritical and ahistorical celebration of an undoubtedly great pontiff. I then urged him to research the history of Polish Catholicism. His fi nal study is nothing less than a skeleton key to John Paul’s papacy, showing how John Paul deployed the motifs and values of ten centuries of Polish Catholicism to inspire the Solidarity movement. It could be argued—substantially on the basis of Belleza’s work—that John Paul’s Polish-Catholic politics caused a temblor in the social order of Cold War Eastern Europe that would lead decisively to the breakdown of Soviet Communism. In this respect, Belleza’s work exemplifi es excellent undergraduate scholarship. —Jorge Aquino, Department of Theology and Religious Studies 107 KAROL WOJTYLA IN THE TRAJECTORY OF POLISH HISTORY JOEY BELLEZA Karol Wojtyla in the Trajectory of Polish History I. Introduction N THE POST-COLD WAR global political confi guration, Poland has Iemerged as a signifi cant actor on the world stage, actively participating in the European Union and NATO alliance while exercising expeditionary military power on a scale unseen since the time of King John III Sobieski (1629-1696). Its recent resurgence from an unfortunate tradition of foreign domination is accompanied by a hitherto unseen institutional and governmental stability, and this newfound political longevity signals the increasing improbability of a return to its colonized past. Yet the Polish eye to the future never loses sight of the path which has led to this point. In fact, the course of Polish history exhibits what might be called an “eschatological trajectory” which (like the Christian conception of salvation history) culminates in a decisive break from a past wrought with subservience and violence, all consummated through a leader of inherently peaceful disposition. The history of Poland, much like the biblical history of the Jews, depicts a people in perennial subjection to foreign powers, save those few instances in which strong kings achieved a measure of prestige and stability, only for national integrity to expire with the death of the monarch who achieved it. Poland’s geographical location, sandwiched between aggressive Germanic peoples to the west, warlike Russians and Cossacks to the east, and (later) the Ottomans to the southeast, made the Polish soil the site of partition after partition. Yet despite this disposition, the Polish race managed to avoid complete cultural absorption into these other more powerful entities. II. Church and state in Poland: A history of an indissoluble union The preservation of their heritage lies in the fact that the Polish people’s historical development is totally coincident with, or largely dependent 108 JOEY BELLEZA on, the history and presence of the Catholic Church in Eastern Europe. Ecclesiastical infl uence, in fact, might be considered the lifeblood of the Polish nation. The two major formerly pagan Slavic tribes which inhabited present-day Poland prior to Christianization, the Polans and the Vistulans, were simply loose confederations of nomadic clans which, prior to the late 10th century, had intermittently banded together only as necessary to repel invasion from Tartars and Cossacks from the east1. Only when Mieszko I, duke of the Polans, had conquered the Vistulans and other local tribes, did the geographical area of Poland become consolidated under one secular power. His marriage in 965 A.D. to Dobrawa, daughter of the Christian duke of Bohemia, Boleslav, precipitated Mieszko’s own conversion to Latin Christianity, followed by a state-wide conversion to Roman Catholicism in 966. Poland’s initiation into the Christian faith was simultaneously a baptism into statehood2. Christianization granted offi cial diplomatic recognition from the Holy Roman Empire and the Holy See, with Mieszko’s territory centered on a capital at Gniezno. Christianization also put Poland in closer contact with the Mediterranean world, opening the way for signifi cant cultural and intellectual exchanges which facilitated the transformation of the Polish people from a quasi-nomadic collection of warrior tribes to a more stabilized socio-political entity. Missionaries and bishops sent from Rome provided centers of culture and administrative stability throughout the reign of the Piast dynasty (the line of kings descended from Mieszko). Despite Poland’s establishment as a state, borders remained porous and nomadic Tartars still plundered the countryside. The eastern border regions suff ered thanks to their distance from Gniezno, and in the absence of strong secular administration, abbots and bishops became the de facto civil guardians of the frontier plains. The fi erce adherence of the Polish people to the Church was seen even in the earliest centuries of their history. When Bishop (later Saint) Stanislaus of Krakow (+1079) publicly condemned and excommunicated Piast King Boleslaw II for adultery and other vices, the king ordered the bishop’s death. The martyrdom produced a massive insurrection in Poland in which Boleslaw was deposed, exiled to Hungary, and succeeded by his brother Wladislaw I.3 In this story, we see emphatically the undisputed primacy of religious loyalty over secular authority. The Stanislaus narrative, therefore, serves two purposes: fi rst, it depicts the almost inseparable 1. Morton, J.B. Sobieski. Eyre and Spottiswood, London: 1932, p. 9. 2. Morton, p. 10. 3. Calendarium Romanum. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Rome, 1969. p. 122. 109 KAROL WOJTYLA IN THE TRAJECTORY OF POLISH HISTORY convergence of Polish national identity and Polish religious history; second, it functions as a stern caveat to political leaders who might dare threaten the dignity of ecclesiastical power. These are motifs which survive unto the present day, and it is fascinating to remember this point when, 900 years later, a successor of Stanislaus will fi nd the courage to raise his voice in opposition to another troubling political order. Years later, another Piast, Boleslaw III (+1138), radically shifted the geographical makeup of Poland by instituting a complex and almost arbitrary system of succession where the land was divided between four of his sons. Wladislaw II, the eldest son, immediately moved to deny his brothers their possessions and thus began the fragmentation of Poland into opposing camps. The state of intermittent war in the 12th and 13th centuries once again left the cathedrals and monasteries as centers of civilization and learning as castles and palaces became battlefi elds and graveyards. While the secular makeup of the divided Polish lands depended largely on the royal personalities which governed them, the strict hierarchical organization of the Church allowed for effi cient administration despite the factionalization and civil turmoil which lasted almost two centuries. It was not until the rise of Ladislaus the Short (+1333) that allowed Poland to reestablish to its long-lost security. This strong king, writes J.B. Morton, had rescued the country from the anarchy of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This had been possible only because he had the backing of the Church and because throughout this period of darkness and dissolution the Church had remained the repository of everything that was meant by Western civilization.4 During the reign of his son Casimir III, the last Piast King, Poland enjoyed reunifi cation and relative stability. Through tactful diplomacy combining concessions to the southward Bohemians with eastward territorial expansion, Casimir (the Great) solidifi ed his nation’s status as a formidable European power. He established the Academia Cracoviensis (the Academy of Krakow, the future Jagellonian University which would later count Karol Wojtyla among its illustrious alumni) in 1364 with the blessing of Pope Urban V, making Krakow a new center of faith, culture, and education. Yet the bliss enjoyed by Poland in this period would prove fl eeting, as Casimir died in 1370 without a male heir, thus ending the Piast dynasty5. The death of the Piasts was followed by the rise of the Jagiellon 4. Morton, p. 16 (emphasis mine). 5. Ibid. 110 JOEY BELLEZA dynasty, the union of Poland with Lithuania, and the rule of elective monarchy. The union created a massive consolidation of territory and power, allowing the new commonwealth a more formidable posture against the creeping Ottomans to the southeast and the Teutonic Knights from the north. Furthermore, the system of elective monarchy increased the infl uence of the Church in Poland.