Płock Catholic Church towards the 1979 pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Polandin the light of documents issued by Płock power apparatus

Abstract

In 1979, during the first pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Poland, thousands of pilgrims from all over Poland came to meet him. The Pope’s visit to his homeland intensified the activities of the state apparatus of the People's Republic of Poland in terms of surveillance, control and levelling of the activities undertaken by the Church. This affected not only priests, bishops and oppositionists, but also the organisers of trips to the meetings with the Pope and ordinary Poles attending them. This large-scale operation carried out by the state apparatus was given the code name “Summer 79”. It was superintended by Department IV of the Ministry of the Interior, and the religious celebrations taking place in the respective provinces were supervised by Department IV of the Provincial Headquarters of the Citizen's Militia. Such actions were also taken against the clergy and the faithful from the diocese of Płock who took part in the preparations and the meeting with the Pope itself. The materials preserved in the documents issued by the Płock Provincial Office and the Płock Provincial Internal Affairs Office show, on the one hand, the determination of the state apparatus to hinder the activities of the Church and, on the other hand, the action taken by the priests and Catholics from the diocese of Płock striving to meet John Paul II despite the difficulties. These documents show both how the communists acted and how the Church, using the available means and opportunities, consistently defended its interests and supported the faithful in nurturing their religiousness, providing them with the opportunity to meet the Pope who carried a breath of hope for a change for the better in the communist reality.