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PAX Association (Polish: Stowarzyszenie PAX) was a pro-communist government religious organization, created in 1947 in Poland. It worked to undermine grassroot support from the Roman Catholic Church, in effecct attempting to create a state Communist Catholic Church. Created by Bolesław Piasecki, it attempted to monolopolize religion in Poland during the stalinist times (1945-1956), but failed to destroy the traditional church. It took over Polish branch of Caritas, supported the trial and imprisonment of many Polish clergy, among them bishop Czesław Kaczmarek and cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. After 1956, together with many other similar government initatitives, it was toned down and took a more compromising position, in some regards even supporting the anti-communist resistance in Poland, although it supported the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland until the fall of communism. Throughout the decades after its creation and death of Stalin, it continued to steadily lose power and influence, although it still exists in modern Poland.
