On Wishful Thinking in Historical Research... A Response to the Review ‘Questions not asked’...

Abstract

This text is a reply to a review of the source volume “Dialog należy kontynuować…” Rozmowy operacyjne Służby Bezpieczeństwa z ks. Henrykiem Gulbinowiczem z lat 1969–1985. Studium przypadku, selected, prefaced and edited by Rafał Łatka and Filip Musiał (Warsaw–Cracow, 2020), which is actually introduction to the volume by Wojciech Polak and Włodzimierz Suleja. The authors of this text contest the theses of the reviews which challenge Father Gulbinowicz’s 16-year-long operational dialog with the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczenstwa, SB). They reinforce the contested Polak’s and Suleja’s claims from “Dialog należy kontynuować…”, on previously unused source materials, indicating that the image of the relentless hierarch that had functioned for years in the public sphere needs to be corrected.