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Soon after the restoration of Independence in 1990, The Act for the Restitution of the Status of the Catholic Church in Lithuania was adopted, which declared cooperation between the State and the Church on the basis of parity. A difficult search for consensus between the bishops and changeable negotiations with secular authorities lasted ten years and the process was reinitiated three times until finally, in 2000, three agreements between the Holy See and the Republic of Lithuania were signed. Having been granted access to the current archives of the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference and the archdioceses for the first time, the author of the present article aims to reconstruct the course of preparation of the agreements from the perspective of the Church. It is revealed how the agreement that had to regulate the restitution of Church property was completely rejected. While discussing the fifteen-year experience of the integration of ratified acts into the Lithuanian legal system and administrative practice, the author asserts that they made a wider impact on civic power and the development of democracy than their direct function would allow us to imagine. The understanding that the Church and the State had a common aim – welfare of person – led the Catholic community itself to greater openness and a positive interaction with other agents of society.

Primate Stefan Wyszyński’s Attitude towards the Apparent Normalization of State-church Relations in the First Years of Edward Gierek’s Rule (1971-1974) The article describes primate Wyszyński’s view on the political situation in the Polish People’s Republic during the period of 1971-1974. It contains his attitude to the political system, communist ideology, and negotiations between the Holy See and the government of the Polish People’s Republic. Primate Wyszyński was a political visionary, who had a very realistic view on the political situation in Poland. It was visible in his relation to the normalization, which the authorities declared in the first part of Edward Gierek’s decade.

Relations of the Holy See with Poland from the perspective of Ostpolitik The author discusses few selected issues from the intricate history of the postwar relations between the communist regime in Poland and the Holy See. He underlines the major role played by the cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and the importance of his leadership. The history of these relations should be put in a proper perspective that includes the urging need to sustain the unity between the Holy See and the Polish Church with regard to any agreement struck with the PPR’s government, especially during the pontificate of Paul VI.

The international significance of St. John Paul II’s social teaching The teaching of John Paul II undoubtedly became a great provocation for the contemporary thinking of man due to its skillful and innovative treatment of a unique event which has been at the centre of the life of the Church for more than two thousand years and which presents a specific opportunity for any man who wants to cope with his own fate. The Pope offered as the essence of his evangelizational message Christianity presented in its completeness, as a phenomenon which cannot be reduced and compared to any form of ideology. Moreover, such Christianity is capable of exerting a creative influence upon man and providing him with a new form of culture. (We may venture an opinion that the entire magisterium of John Paul II is suffused with two kinds of wonder: the wonder of humanization and the results of humanization i.e. the transformation of man). The magisterium of John Paul II should be viewed as a pursuit to renovate the original identity of the Christian faith, a pursuit to promote the Church in it missionary function, a pursuit of a versatile development of the feeling of responsibility for the defense and promotion of human rights and collaboration to maintain peace. Not only did the Polish Pope supplement the output of the social teaching developed by his great predecessors, but he also enhanced it by the idea that the defense of the missionary freedom of the Church and of the Church itself was also associated with an unconditional defense of freedom and the rights of people and nations. This defense entailed the pursuit of such a social order on all levels, from the national level up to the global level, in which the human person would occupy the central position and would constitute a definitive value, irreplaceable by any other value. In one of his most famous social encyclicals entitled Centesimus annus, the Pope clearly emphasized the idea that by defending its own freedom, the Church defends man who should be more obedient to God than to other men, the family or various social and national organizations which enjoy their own sphere of autonomy and sovereignty. Today, more than anytime else, this line of thought finds justification not so much in the confrontation with overtly totalitarian ideologies, but in the struggle with ideologies which seem less bloody in comparison with past ideologies. However, according to such ideologies the human person and the rights of people and nations are systematically rejected in the name of the realization of a project of economic and scientific-technocratic globalization. By continuing the tradition of his predecessors on St. Peter’s throne in the sphere of social teaching, John Paul II introduced one fundamental innovation. When the great ideologies saw their end, he realized that the social teaching of the Church should above all increase its interest in man in his religious and secular therefore natural dimension. This increased interest should be associated with the care about his fundamental rights. The teaching and the activity of John Paul II made the social doctrine of the Church more authentic and even more engaged in the cause of evangelization today than ever before. The Church “practises” or suggests a social doctrine because it desires to fulfil its evangelizational mission completely. At the same time, it meets man in various historical contexts which are objectively difficult to cope with. The Church was engaged in the consideration of all political problems of the world with a freedom which no other institution enjoys. John Paul II spoke to individual people and to nations who lived in various conditions and various situations, to friends and enemies, without a preemptive estimation of possible reactions, including the reactions of the greatest powers on Earth. He did so for the good of mankind, to help mankind maintain its complete humanity. Man is the fundamental value which is subject to no negotiations. God is another value which is subject to no negotiatons because he reveals the true nature of man. We may surmise that with the long course of John Paul II’s pontificate we witnessed a new phase of the development of the social doctrine of the Church. Above all with the arrival of the third millennium the Church is more and more engaged in the problems of the modern word.

The stabilizing functions of the Concordat between the Holy See and Poland of 1993 in the process of the normalization of the relations between the Church and the state The article contains an analysis of the Polish Concordat of 1993, ratified during the stage of transition from communist totalitarianism to liberal democracy. The key elements of these transformations include the change of the system of relations between the Church and the state which consisted in the transition from an atheistic regime – based on the principle of “hostile separation” – to a democratic secular state – based on the principle of “friendly separation” – referred to as “coordinated separation” due to the application of the instrument known as the concordat. In a speech held in the Vatican on 25 March 1998, Pope John Paul II claimed: “[…] The Concordat is a challenge to everyone to whom the future of Poland is dear and to those who feel a responsibility toward Her fate. It is a great opportunity and a great task for the present and future generations”. The Author employed the phrase “the stabilizing functions of the concordat” to refer to these “opportunities and tasks”. In order to explicate his line of thought he described the following: the concept of the concordat and its function, the position of the concordat in the hierarchy of the sources of law, the extent of issues regulated by this document and the bases of its effectiveness in the Polish system of law. Due to the extent of issues regulated by the Polish Concordat, it is a holistic concordat. The objects of its regulation include: the fundamental principles of the relations between the Church and the state, the confirmation of diplomatic relations, guarantees of respecting religious freedom on institutional and individual levels in public life (Art. 3-27).The norms inscribed into the Concordat of 1993 are mostly a confirmation of the norms which functioned at the moment when the document was ratified. Due to the ratification of the Concordat the Polish legislator cannot introduce such norms to the system of the law of the country which would be contradictory to the norms inscribed into the Concordat without an agreement with the Holy See or the Polish Bishops’ Conference, the latter acting on the basis of a mandate of the Holy See. An important factor of the stabilizing function of the Concordat is the method of drawing up legal regulations. This has to do with clauses which refer to other normative acts belonging to the system of Polish law, to the system of canon law, or to future bilateral agreements, contracted on the central level (between the Holy See and the supreme organs of the authorities of the State), or on the local level (between the Polish Bishops’ Conference and the representatives of the Government of the Republic of Poland).This Concordat contributed to the increase of the level of stabilization of direct relations between the Catholic Church and the State in Poland. The document also played indirectly the role of promoting other religious associations. According to the principle of equality of Churches and other religious associations (Art. 25, Par. 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland), there occurred an extension of guarantees inscribed into the Concordat which had to do with other religious associations. This extension was brought about thanks to the employment of auxiliary concordat agreements consisting of individual acts promulgated on the basis of agreements that were negotiated by the government with the representatives of these associations.

The relations between Poland and the Holy See and the question of the concordat of 1993. A presentation of a book “The Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Poland 1993/1998” During the course of John Paul II’s pontificate the moral authority of the Holy See considerably increased in the world, the consequence of which was the considerable development of diplomatic relations with the Vatican. In 1918 Poland began to regulate the relations with the Holy See through concordats. Unfortunately, soon after the Second World War there began a period of unfriendly and frequently hostile policy of the authorities toward the Church. With the passing of years the authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland arrived at a conclusion that the Catholic faith in Poland is a force to be reckoned with. Therefore the representatives of state authorities conducted talks with the Vatican, and the representatives of the Holy See made contacts with the authorities of the Polish Bishops’ Conference and the Office of Religious Denominations. The emergence of the social movement known as “Solidarność” [Solidarity] and a whole array of phenomena which took place in the 1980s brought about the change of the system in our Fatherland and facilitated the construction of a democratic state. This in turn brought about the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, the appointment of the ambassador of Poland at the Holy See and the appointment of the apostolic nuntio in Poland. On 3 April 1993 negotiations began about the elaboration and arrangement of the text of the concordat. The text that was agreed upon was accepted by the Council of Ministers and the Holy See, and it was signed on 28 July 1993. The ratification and the exchange of ratification documents took place in 1998. The principal aim of Archbishop Kowalczyk’s book is not to conduct an exegesis of the content of specific paragraphs of the concordat (this issue is treated in other publications), but to show the reader the way both entities of international law went through negotiations which lead them to the formulation of the specific paragraphs of this agreement.

John Paul II’s position toward the changes in Poland associated with joining the European Union As regards the approach to political problems, John Paul II’s pontificate was different from previous pontificates. Nowadays, due to the media phenomenon of Pope Francis, one tends to forget about the shock, in the positive sense of the word, which was associated with the nomination of Karol Wojtyła to become the pope and his famous words: “Do not be afraid”. These words were as political as they could be. They were addressed mainly to Poland, but not only to that country. John Paul II calmly paved the way for the future unification of Europe. He used the means that were accessible to the Holy See and one of this decisions was to proclaim St. Cyril and St. Methodius as the patrons of Europe. The problem of the European Constitution was doubtlessly a painful area for John Paul II. The document lacked a reference to Christianity. The Polish Pope frequently and explicitly stated that European civilization grew from Christian roots. During the course of this pontificate John Paul II persistently struggled for respecting human rights and for freedom. As far as this area is concerned, Europe seems to pursue a different course than the one which John Paul II tried to define. In other words, Europe set out upon a course which was so much feared by John Paul II and this is the reason that since the very beginning the latter made appeals to establish the European continent in the domain of values. During his visit in 1991 he also warned the Polish people against revelling in their recently regained freedom. Despite his concerns about the course that Europe pursued, John Paul II never became discouraged by the “European project”. He always claimed that Poland belongs in Europe. And that is why, on the eve of Poland joining the European Union, that he addressed the following words directly to the Polish people: Poland needs Europe and Europe needs Poland; our involvement in European structures is a challenge. The Pope appreciated the concerns entertained by eurosceptics, but he emphasized the point that today Poland, which was always a part of Poland, may not divorce itself from this Community.

Concordat – legal instrument regulating relations between state and the Catholic Church As a legal instrument the concordat is closely related to the European culture and tradition. It has its origins in the idea of dualism of politics and religion which accompanied the onset of Christianity in the Roman Empire. As an institution it came into existence in the Middle Ages and evolved considerably over the centuries. The international codification of human rights as well as the doctrinal output of the Vatican Council II exerted considerable influence on the present shape of the concordat. Today it serves as a tool for regulating the relations between the state and the Roman Catholic Church which is represented by the Holy See. The concordat aims to define more precisely the guarantee of religious freedom in both the individual and the community dimension in the way adapted to the needs of a particular country.