August Cardinal Hlond
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August Cardinal Hlond (July 5, 1881 - October 22, 1948) was a Polish prelate. He was Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań in 1926 and primate (highest ranking church official) in Poland, Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw in 1946.
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[edit] Controversial bishop
When the Polish leader Józef Piłsudski died in 1935, Poland became highly nationalistic. The Great Depression of the 1930s pushed many Poles into dire poverty. This led to tensions in Polish society and extremism flourished. Some people believed that if peasants were able to start small businesses, they would escape this poverty.
In the meantime a large proportion (estimated at more than 90%) of shop keepers in Poland were Jewish. In 1936 Cardinal Hlond, the Primate of Poland issued a pastoral letter in which he warned against hating the Jews, but opened an exception for allowing the boycott of Jewish businesses with these ambivalent words: "There will be a Jewish problem as long as the Jews remain...It is a fact that the Jews fight against the Catholic church, they are free-thinkers, and constitute the vanguard of atheism, bolshevism and revolution. It is true that the Jews are committing frauds, practicing usury, and dealing in white slavery. It is also true that in the schools the Jewish youth is having an evil influence, from an ethical and religious point of view, on the Catholic youth. But let us be just. Not all Jews are like that. One does well to avoid Jewish shops and Jewish stalls in the markets, but it is not permitted to demolish Jewish businesses. One should protect oneself against the influence of Jewish morals...but it is inadmissible to assault, hit or injure Jews. In a Jew you should also respect and love a human being and your neighbor." (August Cardinal Hlond's Pastoral Letter of February 29, 1936 which was read from pulpits across the country.)
In 1939 Hlond spent several months in Rome for the conclave of 1939. In January 1940, Vatican Radio broadcast Hlond's reports of Nazi persecution of Jews and the Catholic clergy in Poland. These reports were included in the report of the Polish government to the Nuremberg Trials after the war.
Cardinal August Hlond reported in August 1941 to the secretary of state that the Polish people believed Pope Pius XII had abandoned them. This was said in light of the Nazi persecution of the Polish church and clergy.
He lived in southern France from 1940 to 1944 during most of WW II. He was arrested by the Gestapo on February 3, 1944, but was freed by the Allies on April 1, 1945. He returned to Poznań on July 20, 1945. He was transferred to Warsaw and named primate of Poland on June 13, 1946. He strongly opposed the communist regime there.
Hlond has been accused of overstepping his authority by forcing German officeholders to resign their church posts in 1945 in favor of Poles, thereby supporting the Polish annexation of historical eastern German territories after Potsdam. Most Rev. Maximilian Kaller is one of the bishops who were removed from their dioceses and deported to West Germany. Kaller is now in process of beatification.
[edit] Beatification and further controversy
Professor Franz Scholz, a German theologian, as well as many others have expressed their opposition to the proposed beatification of Cardinal Hlond. Scholz opposes his actions against post-war German expellees and civilians on territory annexated by the Polish Republic. Again Jewish groups, for example, have pointed out that not long after his 1935 call to boycott Jewish shopkeepers, Cardinal Hlond wrote a letter in 1936 that proved harmful to Polish Jews[citation needed]. Some historians have suggested that because of Hlond's allegedly anti-Semitic views, the Roman Catholic Church effectively provided religious cover to the country's extremist anti-Jewish groups[citation needed]. Jewish citizens, they say, were directly affected by Cardinal Hlond's letter. However, it must be noted, that while Hlond promoted the expulsion of German civilians after World War II, Hlond had always consistently condemned the Nazi persecution of the Jews and had been openly opposed to all actions hurting Jews materially and physically. Another contoversy was caused by Hlond's reaction to Kielce pogrom, that took place in Polish town of Kielce on July 4, 1946. While condeming murders, Hlond denied racist nature of this crime. [1] [2]He saw pogrom as a reaction against Jewish beaurocrats serving Communist regime [2]. This position was echoed by cardinal Sapieha, who was reported to have said that the Jews brought it on themselves. [1]
| Preceded by Edmund Dalbor |
Archbishop of Poznań 1926–1946 |
Succeeded by Walenty Dymek |
| Preceded by Edmund Dalbor |
Primate of Poland 1926–1948 |
Succeeded by Stefan Wyszyński |
| Preceded by Aleksander Kakowski |
Archbishop of Warsaw 1946–1948 |
Succeeded by Stefan Wyszyński |
