Działalność Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego wśród młodzieży na terenie województwa gdańskiego w latach 80. XX w. w świetle dokumentów KW PZPR

Abstract

Political changes in the 1980’s were made possible largely due to the involvement of the youth in opposition activities. One of the reasons for this was the openness of the youth towards proposals by the Polish church in the years 1945-1989. During this communist period, the Catholic Church fought constantly with the communist government to protect the spirituality of Polish youth. The last chapter of this clash took place in the 80’s. The communist government tried to restrict the influence of the churches on the young people at all costs. In this article, the author presents an analysis of the documents of the communist party of the city of Gdansk. He examines the influence on Polish youth of the movement called “Ruch Światło-Życie” (Light-Life movement). The documents report examples of school boards and teachers disobeying ‘school secularity’ by maintaining crosses in classrooms. At that time, the communist authorities ran a campaign to remove religious symbols from educational establishments in the whole country.