Between the Brown and the Red Nationalism, Catholicism, and Communism in 20th-Century Poland: The Politics of Bolesław Piasecki
Between the Brown and the Red Nationalism, Catholicism, and Communism in 20th-Century Poland: The Politics of Bolesław Piasecki

Summary/Abstract: This book deals with the political career of Bolesław Piasecki (1915–1979), a minor politician and activist in Soviet-occupied Poland who gained notoriety as head of a quasi-Catholic organization, PAX. PAX enjoyed considerable privileges in a country where committed Catholics were marginalized or persecuted, and where Catholic publications were censored or otherwise prevented from freely reaching society. It could publish certain Catholic books when other publishers were forbidden to do so, and was permitted to open bookstores and devotional stores in cities where sales of Catholic devotional items were limited to churches. At the same time, rank-and-file Catholics were aware that PAX was kept on a medium-length leash by the political police and that it was frowned upon by the Church. No bishop has ever belonged to PAX, and the priests who joined were distrusted by their bishops. Writer Marek Nowakowski (b. 1937) stated in a February 2013 interview that the goal of PAX was the destruction of the Catholic Church in Poland.

• Details
• Contents