Klub Inteligencji Katolickiej

Club of Catholic Intelligence ( KIK - Mz Kluby Inteligencji Katolickiej ) is a network of associations that form the meeting of faithful lay Catholics in Poland.

The first clubs were taken during the political thaw after the upheaval of 21 October 1956, when the Party Secretary Wladyslaw Gomulka sought an understanding with the moderate opposition. 1957-1976 were the representatives of the clubs a legal Catholic opposition in the Polish Parliament ( Sejm ).

When the Party Secretary Edward Gierek in the mid-70s, a vassal policy towards the USSR strove, it came to the conflict. Many KIK - members started the Committee for the Defense of the workers support, after the strikes of the summer 1980 KIK - members acted as advisor to the striking workers and the Solidarity trade union. They also took an active part in the round table 1989. Also, the first Prime Minister of democratic Poland, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, came from the ranks of KIK - members.

Activities and structure

The first club was formed in autumn 1956 in Warsaw, in the spring of 1957 followed by others in Krakow, Poznan, Torun and Wroclaw. Then the authorities refused further approvals - until 1980 in the clubs of Catholicism is seen as a cosmopolitan religion.. Ecumenical movements are supported, fights anti-Semitism violently. This sometimes leads to conflicts with some conservative bishops.

All kiks are independent associations that operate according to their own statutes. The board members are elected by the members, have their own chaplain or church assistant. There is no central administration. The clubs, however, have a 1989 " understanding of the clubs " called. An exception is the club founded by Ryszard Bender, 1976 in Lublin, which was supported by the then authorities and to this day maintains a conservative Catholic belief and understanding of the clubs not consulted.

Since 1971 the Warsaw club member of the Pax Romana ICMICA. 2004, the World Congress of ICMICA was held in Warsaw. It was then chairman of the Warsaw clubs, the historian Piotr Cywiński, elected chairman for Europe for the period 2004-2008.

Among the members of the Warsaw clubs included, inter alia, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Stanisław Stomma.

The club supported the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace in Poland.

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