Lwowska sufragania Jana Puzyny w opinii biskupa Leona Wałęgi

Abstract

The report of Leon Wałęga, the bishop of Tarnów, is treated as the Lvovian period of life of the bishop Jan Puzyna. In 1886, he was appointed as the assistant bishop of the archdiocese of Lvov, the Latin rites, and he held this position until 1895. During that time, he widely expanded the organizational measures. Above all, he had regular canonical visitations; he initiated the construction of Roman Catholic churches and chapels in villages with a mixed Polish-Ukrainian ethnicity. He was also concerned with the development of the parish networks. He put a lot of emphasis on the genuine religious and intellectual formation of theology students by breaking the old educational pattern and by sending his alumni for specialized studies abroad to western Europe. This information — known from other sources — is further expanded by the personal reflections of bishop Wałęga. There is however, quite a bit of subjectivity on the part of the author regarding the character traits, motivations, and the socio-political and church opinions of bishop Puzyna. There is also an evident exaggerated idealization of the persona, which results in a kind of “dehumanization” of his character. The close friendship of the hierarchs, as well as an ex post view on certain incidents, decisions or arguments of bishop Puzyna had an influence on this. Although there is an ascendancy of the emotional aspect rather than a substantial one in the published document, it is correct to acknowledge him as an interesting contribution from the psychological aspect to more fully understand the episode of the Lvovian suffragan in the life of Jan Puzyna.