The Catholic Church in Nowa Huta During the Gierek Period. The Development of the Parish Network and Religious Buildings

Abstract

This scientific article basically consists of two autonomous parts; a short introduction and an ending. The first part begins with an explanation of the prevailing realities between the Catholic Church and the Polish state in the 1970s. The first part of this chapter is devoted to a detailed discussion of the parishes in Nowa Huta which existed in that period, together with the actual state of the clergy and male and female religious orders located there. The second part of the work, however, contains a detailed description of the expansion, renovation and construction of sacred buildings in the area of individual parishes in Nowa Huta in the context of official atheisation of public space carried out by the communist authorities. The description of the struggle of the clergy and the faithful with local administrative authorities for the possibility of building new churches, as well as catechetical points, is shown by selected examples from the parishes of Bieńczyce, Pleszów, Mistrzejowice, Mogiła and Czyżyna.