Stefan Wyszyński

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Stefan Wyszyński (3 August 1901 – 28 May 1981) was a

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Wyszyński aided several Jews. In the fall of 1941, the future cardinal took shelter from the Gestapo at the Żułów [pl] estate, run by Franciscan nuns. While there, he and another man helped hide a widowed Jewish labourer and his two children – who would be denounced by a Ukrainian nationalist and killed by the Germans in October/November 1942, five months after the liquidation of the local ghetto in Kraśniczyn^[8] – in an attic. Additionally, Esther Grinberg, in her testimony held at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, credits the Polish assistance that saved her life to Wyszyński's veiled injunction, possibly in a sermon, to rescue "those running from the fire".^[9][10]

In 1945, a year after the end of war in the area, Wyszyński returned to Włocławek, where he started a restoration project for the devastated seminary, becoming its rector as well as the chief editor of a Catholic weekly.

Bishop

Just a year later, on 25 March 1946, Pope Pius XII appointed him Bishop of Lublin; he was consecrated by Cardinal August Hlond on 12 May that year.

Asked by delegates of the Central Committee of Polish Jews to condemn the Kielce pogrom of 4 July 1946, bishop Wyszyński explained the massacre as popular retribution for Jewish participation in the new Communist government, adding that "the Germans wanted to exterminate the Jewish nation because the Jews spread Communism". He also claimed that Jewish books consulted during trial of Beilis had not dispelled the accusations of ritual murder, and demanded that the Jews leave Poland.^[11]

After Hlond's death on 22 October 1948, Wyszyński was named

World War II ended in 1945; however, beginning in the eastern portion of present-day Poland, and later in the west, hostilities continued for several years between a large segment of Poles and the

trade union was created in Poland, he appealed to both sides, the government as well as the striking workers, to act responsibly.

Cardinal Wyszyński, often called the Primate of the Millennium, died on 28 May 1981 at the age of 79 of

assassination attempt on the pope

, offered his own life for that of the pontiff's.

To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of his death, the year 2001 was announced by the Sejm as the Year of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The Sejm also honoured the Cardinal as a "great Pole, chaplain and statesman".

Legacy

Wyszyński's major achievement was to preserve the position of the Catholic Church as a powerful social institution in Poland into the Communist era. Under Wyszyński, the Church gradually became an autonomous partner to the ruling nomenklatura in shaping the post-war society. Rather than implementing the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, Wyszyński's Church cultivated moral authority by appealing to tradition.^[14]

In 1981 Krzysztof Penderecki composed the Agnus Dei of his Polish Requiem in his memory. In 2000, a motion picture was made about the life and imprisonment of Wyszyński. The Primate – Three Years Out of a Thousand was directed by Teresa Kotlarczyk. The title role was played by Andrzej Seweryn.

In the CBS miniseries Pope John Paul II (based on the life of the Polish pope), Cardinal Wyszyński was portrayed by English actor Christopher Lee.

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, earlier the Warsaw Theological Academy, was renamed for him. The Museum of John Paul II and Primate Wyszyński is being constructed at the Temple of Divine Providence

in Warsaw.

In 2022, another motion picture of Wyszyński's life was made. Prophet, was directed by Michal Kondrat. The title role was played by Slawomir Grzymkowski.[15]

Beatification

28 May
Attributes	Cardinal's attire
Patronage	Persecuted Christians, Civitas Christiana

The official "

Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 8 February 2002 in Rome. The Positio was assembled and was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in November 2015 in which documents were submitted to the Cardinal Prefect Angelo Amato from Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz.^[16]

Theologians met to discuss the contents of the Positio on 26 April 2016 and voted in favor of the late cardinal's life of heroic virtue. It must be passed onto the members of the C.C.S. before receiving papal approval. The C.C.S. cardinal and bishop members voted and approved the cause in their meeting on 12 December 2017.

Venerable

.

An investigation on a diocesan level was initiated on 27 March 2012 for an alleged miracle attributed to him which concluded its business on 28 May 2013; the process was validated on 10 October 2014. The documentation proceeded from that point to Rome for further evaluation, but this evaluation could only take place upon the declaration of his heroic virtue (this happened in 2017 allowing for the miracle to be further assessed).^[17][18] The medical experts in Rome approved the miracle on 29 November 2018 with theologians later confirming it as well as the cardinals and bishops comprising the Congregation on 24 September 2019.^[19]

On 3 October 2019, the

Congregation for the Causes of the Saints officially approved the miracle, the last step to his beatification after the Congregation's members themselves approved the miracle on 24 September.^[20] The beatification was scheduled to take place in Warsaw on 7 June 2020 but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] The beatification was re-scheduled and celebrated on 12 September 2021 with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro presiding on the Pope's behalf.^[3]

See also

• Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stefan Wyszyński.

• ISBN 9781921817441
• Czaczkowska E., Kardynał Wyszyński, Świat Książki, Warszawa 2009,
  ISBN 978-83-247-1341-7
  ;
• Micewski A., Kardynał Wyszyński. Prymas i mąż stanu, Éditions du Dialogue, Paris 1982,
  ISBN 2-85316-038-6
  ;
• ISBN 978-0-19-530491-6
• Romaniuk M.P., Prymas Wyszyński. Biografia i wybrane źródła, Gaudentinum, Gniezno 2001,
  ISBN 83-87926-50-7
  ;
• Shneiderman, Samuel Leib (1947), Between Fear and Hope, New York: Arco
• Szeloch H., Rodzina wobec pomocniczości i dobra wspólnego w nauczaniu społecznym Stefana Kardynała Wyszyńskiego – Prymasa Polski, PWT Wrocław 1988.

References

1. ^ "Wloclawek: the intention of the beatification of the Primate of the Millennium". Civitas Christiana. 27 July 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
2. ^ ^{a b} Beatyfikacja kard. Stefana Wyszyńskiego zawieszona PRZEJDŹ DO GALERII
3. ^ ^{a b} "Komunikat Arcybiskupa Metropolity Warszawskiego". archidiecezja.warszawa.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Ostatni interrex. Polityczny autorytet z konieczności". www.rp.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 3 June 2020.
5. S2CID 248080544
   .
6. ^ Ficek (2021), p. 61
7. ^ Ficek (2021), p. 63
8. ^ Kraśniczyn – akcja "Reinhardt", Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre
9. ^ Tomasz Krzyżak (16 February 2016). "Nieznane oblicze kard. Wyszyńskiego". Rzeczpospolita. Archived from the original on 15 September 2021. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
10. ^ Paweł Rytel-Andrianik (20 January 2015). "The Unknown Side of Cardinal Wyszyński". Zenit News Agency. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
11. ^ Shneiderman 1947, p. 117.
12. ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XLV. 1953. pp. 70–1. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
13. ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XLIX. 1957. p. 257. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
14. ^ Michlic & Polonsky 2005, p. 37–38; regarding the concern for social influence cf. the account of Congar 2012, p. 834, on how one of the secretariats of the Second Vatican Council in November 1965 "attempted to give satisfaction to a letter from Cardinal Wyszynski, in the name of the bishops of Poland (not to assert the transcendence of religion in such a way that the Communists could make use of it in order to confine priests to the sacristy)". Congar 2012, p. 456, found Wyszyński "very optimistic on the religious fidelity of the Poles" in November 1963.
15. ^ "NEW FEATURE FILM "PROPHET" TELLS THE POWERFUL STORY OF THE MAN WHO PAVED THE WAY FOR POPE JOHN PAUL II". Fathom Events. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
16. ^ "Closer to the beatification of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Warsaw: completed the next stage". Republika. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
17. ^ "Primate Wyszynski – why a saint?". Sunday Catholic Weekly. 2011. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
18. ^ "Cardinal Wyszynski on the way to the altars". Sunday Catholic Weekly. 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
19. ^ "Jest kolejny krok na drodze do beatyfikacji kard. Wyszyńskiego. Lekarze są zgodni". Religia Deon. 20 January 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
20. ^ "Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi". Sala Stampa della Santa Sede. 3 October 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019.

Books

• Love and Social Justice: Reflections on Society, Arouca Press, 2021
  ISBN 978-1989905913

External links

• Rooney, David M., Religion and nationalism in Soviet and East European politics, National Review; 11/7/1986.
• Virtual tour Gniezno Cathedral Archived 17 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• List of Primates of Poland

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by August Hlond	Primate of Poland 1948–1981	Succeeded by Józef Glemp
	Archbishop of Gniezno 1948–1981
	Archbishop of Warsaw 1948–1981
Preceded by Marian Leon Fulman	Bishop of Lublin 4 March 1946 – 12 November 1948	Succeeded by Piotr Kałwa
Preceded by Pedro Segura y Saenz	Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere 18 May 1957 – 28 May 1981	Succeeded by Józef Glemp