„Postępowi” katolicy w II Rzeczypospolitej

Abstract

The teaching of Church is conservative and this feature lies in its nature. It does not demand any radical social changes and it is not familiar with any upheavals, coup d’etats and revolutions. The nature of Christian radicalism is spiritual and personal. The Church requires only radical severance with sin and also the consistent choice of good. In the sphere of social life this attitude is manifested by the patient, decisive, consistent, but always peaceful proclaiming and putting into practice the principles coming from the Bible. In the period between the two World Wars the Catholic Church in Poland many times manifested conservative character of its social programme, especially when it took up the fight with any type of radical attitudes (both left and right-winged) and also when it proclaimed its loyality to the state authorites. The conservative character of the teaching of the Church had also an enormous influence upon the Polish national thought. This influence was manifested not only in the decisive rejection of all forms of radical nationalism (the aim of which was to attribute the primary and superior role to the term nation) but also in the objection to the other extreme (which was the result of the lack of patriotism) — the cosmopolitian attitude. Many opponents, even within the Church itself, tried to propagate the ideals of the Church „progressive”, „open” and „following the current trends”. The struggle for the idea of „modern” Church was conducted in various ways. Its main aim was first of all „the foght with clericalism” and with the Catholic morality and also the development of many religious sects. The main ideas of the „progressive” Church, which served the fight with the conservative character of the Catholicism, were positivism, secularity and tolerance, strenghtened by the anticlericalism of the intellectual and social elites. One of the most heavily attacked spheres of the Catholic life was its morality. Its principles were regarded as „old-fashioned”. A low moral level of many social spheres was a good ground for the „progressive” morality. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the Catholics took up the struggle to preserve their whole faith and mortality since the main principles of social life, basic ethical and social ideals of Christianity are permanent values. Thanks to the faithfulness to its teaching, the Church was able to give the spiritual basis for putting into practice some necessary changes and directions for evolution in the social life for whole societes.