New Man in the Teaching of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski

Abstract

The times of the Second World War led to a deep degradation of human dignity. In addition, the communist decades in Poland also gave the humans lost their dignity, which was associated with numerous abuses of power and violations of human rights. The Primate Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, who headed the Church in Poland, proposed in the context of the program called ‘The Great Novena ’the religious and moral renewal of Poles. In that way in the years 1957-1965 it was the main aim to prepare people for the celebration of the millennium of the Baptism of Poland. The essence of this program The Great Novena was to rebuild the sense of dignity of the believers who is not afraid to profess and practice his faith, keeping the moral virtues. In this way, the Primate wanted to bring up a “new man” who had a sense of his own dignity, who respected the traditional national values, caring the family life and he is sensitive to other people and common good. In many points the program the Primate was against of the communist policy of that time which breaks the pillars of social life (such as freedom of speech, the right of association, the freedom of conscience, the values of truth and law) and building the new corresponding to the concept of an atheistic socialist state. Thanks to the wide response of the Polish society and the personal involvement of Primate Stefan Wyszynski, the Great Novena program allowed to be strengthen the Catholic Church in Poland, but also brought up the Solidarity generation.