Wczesna myśl społeczna i narodowa księdza Teodora Kubiny (do 1909 roku)

Abstract

Studies in Wrocław, and especially in Rome, enabled T. Kubina to get in touch with the latest ideological movements in the Catholic social teachings and also with the current literature on this subject. But most of all, they resulted in his contacts with prominent Catholic activists and social thinkers, out of whom the Jesuits, Fr. J. Biederlack and Fr. W. Piątkiewicz, had the greatest influence on his person and views. This influence brought about an unusually large number of publications on social issues, which T. Kubina published in the years 1905-1907. They are mainly characterized by an attempt of implanting German and Italian models of practical Catholic social activities on the Polish ground. The issues dealt with in this publications i.e. caring for economic emigrants, organizing Catholic social associations, forms of work on raising social and cultural consciousness of the society will be present in Fr. T. Kubina's ministration as a curate, a parson and a bishop. A characteristic feature is that T. Kubina treats social activity as cultural activity, i.e. he claims that social work should focus mainly on raising cultural standards of the society in manifold aspects – religious, economic, politiceli and social, and in all its classes. The first years of his ministration in the Upper Silesia region proved that he was not merely a theoretician but he tried to implement social activities he postulated by organizing and developing associations of Catholic workers and craftsmen.