Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
His Eminence Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński (3 August 1901 - 28 May 1981) was a Polish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the bishop of Lublin from 1946 to 1948, archbishop of Warsaw and archbishop of Gniezno from 1948 to 1981. Appointed cardinal on 12 January 1953, he assumed the title of Primate of Poland.
Wyszyński was born on 3 August 1901 in the little village of Zuzela on the River Bug, on the regional border between Mazovia and Podlasie. In outcome of the Partitions in the late 18th century, these territories were part of the Russian partitional zone until the end of the First World War. In those areas directly incorporated in the Russian Empire there was an intensive campaign to make the Polish population abandon their traditions and lose their national awareness. In 1912 Wyszyński's father (his mother had died when he was nine) sent him to Warsaw, where conditions were not so harsh. He completed his grammar school education there in 1915. He then enrolled in the seminary in Włocławek, and on his 24th birthday (3 August 1924), after being hospitalised with a serious illness, he received his priestly ordination from Bishop Adalberto Owczarek.
Father Wyszyński celebrated his first Solemn High Mass of Thanksgiving, at Jasna Góra in Częstochowa, a place of special spiritual significance for many Poles. The Pauline monastery there holds the holy picture of the Black Madonna, or Our Lady of Częstochowa, the patron saint and guardian of Poland. Father Wyszyński spent the next four years in Lublin, where in 1929 he received the doctor's degree in the Faculty of Canon Law and the Social Sciences of the Catholic University of Lublin. His dissertation in Canon Law, was entitled The Rights of the Family, Church and State to Schools. For several years after graduation he travelled throughout Europe, where he furthered his education.
After returning to Poland, Father Wyszyński began teaching at the seminary in Włocławek. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, he left Włocławek because he was wanted by the Germans for the pastoral duties he had performed for working-class people. At the request of Bishop Kozal, he went to Laski near Warsaw. When the uprising broke out on 1 August 1944, he became chaplain of the Kampinos unit of the Armia Krajowa Polish underground resistance organisation. He also worked at the Laski hospital, bringing spiritual comfort to wounded insurgents.
At the end of the War, in 1945, Father Wyszyński returned to Włocławek, where he started a restoration project for the devastated seminary, becoming its rector and the chief editor of a Catholic weekly. Just a year later, on 25 March 1946, Pope Pius XII appointed him Bishop of Lublin; he was consecrated by August Cardinal Hlond on 12 May that year. After the death of Cardinal Hlond on 22 October 1948, he was named Metropolitan Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw, and thus Primate of Poland, on 12 November 1948.
For the Church in Poland, the 1950s were a time of persecution by the Communist authorities; the Stalinist ideology claimed the Church and religion in general was about to disintegrate. Archbishop Wyszyński decided to enter an agreement with the Communist authorities, which was signed on 14 February 1950 by the Polish episcopate and the government. The Agreement regulated the matters of the Church in Poland. Yet already in May of that year, Sejm breached the Agreement by passing a law for the confiscation of Church property.
On 12 January 1953, Wyszyński was elevated to the rank of Cardinal-Priest of Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere. by Pius XII. Also in 1953, another wave of persecution began in Poland. When the bishops voiced their opposition to state interference in ecclesiastical appointments, mass trials and the internment of priests began - the cardinal being among the number of its victims. On 25 September 1953 he was imprisoned at Grudziądz, and later placed under house arrest in monasteries in Prudnik near Opole and in Komańcza in the Bieszczady Mountains. He was not released until 26 October 1956.
Nonetheless, he never stopped his religious and social work. Its crowning achievement was the celebration of Poland's Millennium of Christianity in 1966 - the thousandth anniversary of the baptism of Poland's first prince, Mieszko I. During the celebration, the Communist authorities refused to allow Pope Paul VI to visit Poland; they also prevented Cardinal Wyszyński from attending overseas celebrations. Wyszyński triumphed in 1978, when Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Krakow was elected Pope John Paul II, followed by a spectacular papal visit to Poland in 1979. Cardinal Wyszyński did not turn a blind eye on the civil unrest in 1980. When the Solidarity trade union was created in Poland, he showed his anxiety for the welfare of the people and peace in the country by appealing to both sides, the government as well as the striking workers, to be responsible for their actions and their consequences.
| Styles of Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński |
|
 |
|
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Warsaw |
Cardinal Wyszyński, often called the Primate of the Millennium, died on 28 May 1981 at the age of 79. Throughout his life, he always attached much importantce to his fellow human being. Not only did he preach that honour and conscience are the most important values, he also bore witness to this with his social involvement and great patriotism. He is regarded as one of the greatest moral authorities of the 20th century. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of his death, the year 2001 was celebrated as the Year of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. It is said that he still has relatives living in New Jersey.
In 2000 a motion picture was made about the life and imprisonment of Wyszyński entitled "The Primate - Three Years Out of a Thousand", directed by Teresa Kotlarczyk. The title role was played by Andrzej Seweryn.
In the CBS miniseries Pope John Paul II (based upon the life of the Polish pope), Cardinal Wyszyński was portrayed by English actor Christopher Lee.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Religion and nationalism in Soviet and East European politics, National Review; 11/7/1986; Rooney, David M.
| Preceded by August Hlond |
Primate of Poland 1948–1981 |
Succeeded by Józef Glemp |
| Archbishop of Gniezno 1948–1981 |
||
| Archbishop of Warsaw 1948–1981 |
