NID: POLAND: CATHOLIC CHURCH LEGALIZED

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826742
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: May 18, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826742
NR Record
POLAND: Catholic Church Legalized
Poland s legislature esterda
Church
w recognizing the Catholic
giving the Pope
Inc right to name all bishops, the church the ri ht to own ro ert in
its own name, and a free Catholic press.
Warsaw a
A formal exchan e of ambassadors between
the Vatican
is expected later this year.
Comment: Giving the church legal status is an indicator of the
regime's desperation for popular support, most immediately to
improve its prospects in next month's legislative election. The regime
also hopes to entice the church, long supportive of Solidarity. into a
more neutral role. Warsaw, which recognized the political opposition
in the roundtable accord, has, in legalizing the church, further
abandoned its longstanding ideological claim to rule alone. It has also
confirmed the church's status as Poland's leading moral political
force.
"IrtrirSeera__
rcs 2315/89
18 May 1989
3 �7 2
�
6.2(d)
3.3(b)(1)
3.3(b)(1)
3.3(b)(1)
6.2(d)
6.2(d
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826742