Stefan Wyszyński

Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski ( born August 3, 1901 in Zuzela in today Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, † 28 May 1981 in Warsaw) was first Bishop of Lublin, later Archbishop of Gniezno ( Gniezno ) and Warsaw and Primate of Poland.

Life

Stefan Wyszynski joined the seminary in 1920 in Wloclawek and received on August 3, 1924 Bishop Wojciech Owczarek the sacrament of Holy Orders. From 1925 to 1929 he studied at the Catholic University of Lublin canon law and socio-economic sciences and acquired in 1929 with his thesis "The right of the family, the Church and the State in relation to the school," doctoral degrees. He then went on a year long scientific trip to Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany to learn about the activities of trade unions and social movements. From 1931 he taught Catholic social economics at the seminary in Wloclawek and engaged simultaneously in educational work in the Christian trade unions. In 1937 he became a member of the Social Council of the Primate of Poland.

During the Second World War he worked on conspiratorial educational work among the youth and worked during the Warsaw Uprising as a minister of the Polish underground army.

In 1945 he became rector of the seminary in Wloclawek. On March 25, 1946, he was named by Pope Pius XII. Bishop of Lublin, and he received on May 12, 1946 August Cardinal Hlond episcopal ordination.

In 1948 he became archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and Primate of Poland at the same time head of the Polish Bishops' Conference. On January 12, 1953 he was appointed cardinal, but was due to its interim three-year imprisonment (September 25, 1953 - October 26, 1956 ) by the communist authorities until May 18, 1957 officially as a cardinal priest with the titular church of Santa Maria in Trastevere the College of Cardinals will be added.

Wyszynski took from 1962 to 1965 at all plenary sessions of Vatican II part and tried there, but without success, to a larger church importance of Mary, mother of Jesus. In addition, it was announced at the end of Vatican II due to an exchange of letters between Polish and German bishops, which was the cause of reconciliation between Poles and Germans of great importance. The request for forgiveness contained therein sparked outrage in the Communist regime in Poland.

In September 1978, Wyszynski visited with a delegation from the Polish Episcopate, to which Cardinal Karol Wojtyła of a month later elected as Pope was, at the invitation of the German Bishops Conference, the Federal Republic of Germany. The Polish Primate played from 1980 as a decisive role as a mediator between the Polish opposition movement Solidarity and the communist regime and called for workers and peasants the right to free trade unions; called on the opposition to act prudently and in their demands for moderation.

Wyszynski is a symbol form of spiritual resistance against the communist- atheist regime in Poland. Because of its role as guardian of the Christian identity of the Polish nation in times of communist repression against the Church it is called in Poland also Primate of the Millennium. Before the Warsaw Visitation Church a monument to him was erected in 1987.

In 1989, the beatification process for Stefan Wyszynski was opened.