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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Karol Cardinal Wojtyla's encounters with Marxism-Leninism, the official ideology of the Polish state run by the Communist party, have taken place on two levels: theoretical-philosophical and political-practical. As a person living in the country ruled by the Marxist-Leninists, the Cardinal had to be concerned with the reality of his own situation as well as the power structure of the Party-state. As a priest he had to deal with the concept of alienation that is at the center of Marxist anthropology, realizing that the fundamental precondition for abolition of alienation is not abundance of material goods, but an internal improvement of people. As a philosopher Wojtyla had to cope with Marxist concepts of man, nature, society, economics and culture. A neo-Thomist scholar, the present pope believes in human liberty and rejects deterministic philosophies such as Marxism.
1. The best known work of Wojtyla, Karol is The Acting Person, Translated by Andrzej Potocki (Reidel, Analecta Husserliana, 1979). Among his other works in which he deals with those issues are “Osoba: podmiot i wspolnota”, Roczniki Filozoficzne, (XXIV, 2, 1976); Sign of Contradiction (New York, 1979); and “Humanizm a eel czlowieka”, Tygodnik Powszechny (31, 1957).Google Scholar
2. Nemec, Ludvik, Pope John Paul II. A Festive Profile (New York, 1979), pp. 38–40. Also Tadeusz Karolak, John Paul II. The Pope from Poland (Warsaw, 1979), pp. 7ff.Google Scholar
3. Nemec, , Pope John Paul II, p. 53.Google Scholar
4. Ibid., p. 44.Google Scholar
5. Ibid., pp. 61–62.Google Scholar
6. Wojtyla, Karol, Paul, Pope John II, The Acting Person (Dordrecht, Boston, London, 1979).Google Scholar
7. Nemec, , Paul, Pope John II, p. 79.Google Scholar
8. Letter to the Editor by Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S., The New York Times, June 19, 1979.Google Scholar
9. Wojtyla, Karol Cardinal, “Participation or Alienation”, delivered at Harvard University, Summer 1976. A Xeroxed copy of the lecture has been secured by the courtesy of Rev. Professor Francis J. Lescoe, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Conn.Google Scholar
10. Ibid., p. 18.Google Scholar
11. Ibid., pp. 18–19.Google Scholar
12. Ibid., p. 17.Google Scholar
13. Wojtyla, , The Acting Person, p. 297.Google Scholar
14. Ibid. Google Scholar
15. Redemptor Hominis, Supplements to The Catholic Transcript (March 23, 1979), National Catholic Reporter (March 23, 1979) and The Wanderer (March 29, 1979), 17.Google Scholar
16. Ibid. Google Scholar
17. Divini Redemptoris was issued on March 19, 1937. It discusses Communism, contrasting to it the doctrine of the Church, and it calls for a defensive, constructive program against the evils of Communism.Google Scholar
18. Hartford Courant, October 4, 1979; also The New York Times, October 4, 1979. For complete addresses of Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to the United States, October 1-7, 1979, see The Pope in America (The Wanderer Press, 1979).Google Scholar
19. The New York Times, June 6, 1979.Google Scholar
20. Redemptor Hominis, 17.Google Scholar
21. Nemec, , Pope John Paul II, p. 99.Google Scholar
22. Staar, Richard F., “Soviet Policies in East Europe”, Current History, October, 1979, p. 122.Google Scholar
23. Parsons, Howard L., “Human values in Marxism and Christianity”, World Marxist Review (vol. 22, No. 7) July 1979, pp. 30–33.Google Scholar
24. Ibid., p. 32.Google Scholar
25. The two priests in question were Msgr. Jan Šrámek, the former Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London during World War II, and Rev. František Hála. Msgr. Šrámek was the leader of the People's Party, one of the four Czech political parties participating in the National Front government established in Košice, Czechoslovakia, in April 1945. He and Rev. Hála assumed that the Communist party was “just another policital party” and that a modified pre-World War II regime would be reestablished in Czechoslovakia under the presidency of Dr. Eduard Beneš. This belief in the possiblity of coexistence of democratic and Marxist-Leninist forces was shattered in February 1948, after which events both Šrámek and Hála attempted to escape abroad, were apprehended and spent the rest of their lives in detention. After the February 1948 putsch the country's bishops instructed priests not to take an active part in politics. Rev. Josef Plojhar, however, refused to obey his bishop and held a post in the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. For a detailed explanation of the Marxist-Leninist strategy and tactics in Czechoslovakia see Chapter X, “The National Democratic Revolution and the Socialist Revolution” in Josef Kalvoda, Czechoslovakia's Role in Soviet Strategy (Washington, D.C., 1978), pp. 199–218.Google Scholar
26. “Differences in Outlook and Political Cooperation. Meeting of Marxists and Catholis”, World Marxist Review (vol. 17, No. 6) June 1974, pp. 74–84.Google Scholar
27. Ibid. Google Scholar
28. World Marxist Review, May 1979. p. 58.Google Scholar
Among the proponents of Christian-Marxist dialogue have been Harvey Cox, Juergen Moltmann and Roger Garaudy. In reviewing their thinking and the ideas of the various forms of Gnosticism which preceded “dialogical Christianity”, Dale Vree noticed that there has been more enthusiasm for dialogue on the part of liberal religionists than Marxists. He also noticed that just as some Christians attempted to reach understanding with the Nazi regime in Germany, dialogical Christians are eager to accommodate the Marxist regimes. In his book On Synthesizing Marxism and Christianity (New York, 1976), Vree concludes that a synthesis between Marxism and Christianity is not possible, for they are belief systems which are not mutually compatible. The attempt at synthesis on the Christian side results in heresy and on the Marxist side it leads to revisionism.Google Scholar
29. Kalvoda, Josef, “Communist Strategy in Latin America”, The Yale Review (vol. L. No. 1, Autumn 1960, pp. 32–41). Reprinted in: foreign publications of the U.S. Information Agency, publications of the U.S. Air Force University, Congressional Record, June 14, 1961, and in several other periodicals.Google Scholar
30. Ibid., p. 40.Google Scholar
31. In contrast to Poland, pupils attendance of religious classes has declined considerably in Czechoslovakia. While in Slovakia during the years 1968–1977 appr. 70 per cent of pupils attended religious instructions, their number declined to some 20 per cent in 1979. In the Czech Lands during the years 1968–1977 some 50 per cent of pupils attended religious instructions, but the number shrunk to merely 5 per cent in 1979. A parallel situation exists with the Protestants. After 1968, as a consequence of the relaxation, about 5,000 pupils attended Protestant religious instructions in Prague, while in 1979 the number declined to merely 480. The regime prohibits the giving of religious instructions outside the school premises — in churches. Religious instructions in schools are permitted only once a week and are under state supervision. See Hlas Nárada (Chicago), November 3, 1979 and Nový život (Rome), Nos. 7–8, 1979.Google Scholar
32. Wojtyla, , “Participation or Alienation”, p. 18.Google Scholar
33. The Catholic Transcript, February 2, 1979; also The New York Times, January 29 and 30, 1979.Google Scholar
34. The Catholic Transcript, February 2, 1979.Google Scholar
35. The New York Times, June 4, 1979.Google Scholar
36. The Pope in Poland (Radio Free Europe Research, 1979), p. 47.Google Scholar
37. Ibid., p. 77.Google Scholar
38. Ibid. Google Scholar
39. Nový život (Rome), No 12. December, 1979.Google Scholar
40. Ibid. See also “350 Czechs Said to Send Protest to Pope about Religious Arrests”, The New York Times, November 1, 1979.Google Scholar
41. Hlas Národa (Chicago), May 24, 1980.Google Scholar
42. The Wanderer, August 28, 1980.Google Scholar
43. The Hartford Courant, October 20, 1980.Google Scholar
44. The Wanderer, May 1, 1980.Google Scholar
45. The Hartford Courant, June 24, 1980.Google Scholar
46. Granma (Cuba), August 3, 1980.Google Scholar
In mid-October 1980 a conflict between the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and the country's seven bishops came into the open. The bishops charged the regime with “manipulating” religious sentiments and promoting “class hatred”. In addition, the Bishops Conference ordered the priests in top government posts to resign by the end of December 1980. See “Church-State Ties Sour in Nicaragua”, The New York Times, December 10, 1980. Despite their being ordered out of top government posts, the four priests refused to obey, remained in the government and were suspended subsequently.Google Scholar
47. The New York Times, July 7, 1980.Google Scholar
48. Ibid. Google Scholar
49. The Hartford Courant, July 11, 1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar