Caritas across the Iron Curtain? Polish-German Reconciliation and the Bishops’ Letter of 1965
Caritas across the Iron Curtain? Polish-German Reconciliation and the Bishops’ Letter of 1965

Summary/Abstract: This article takes the November 1965 letter of Poland’s Roman Catholic bishops to their German counterparts as a starting point for historical inquiry into the nature and consequences of Catholic engagement in Polish-German reconciliation. The article begins with a close reading of the letter’s text and its philosophical-theological underpinnings; then, it discusses the letter’s reception history and its political consequences. The letter and its reception have a double significance: first, as an event in post-World War II European political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical history; second, as an ethical commentary on the spirit of dialogue promulgated in the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. Although the letter helped to facilitate a process of Polish-German reconciliation that remains ongoing, this process has failed to assimilate the letter’s ethics of forgiveness. That failure has reinforced the roadblocks that hamper Polish-German reconciliation almost two decades after the fall of communism in Europe.

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