Displaced Polish elite nationalists and the Catholic Church in England 1940-1952

Krawiec, Michael

Abstract

Using unexploited primary sources, this thesis will explain how, during the period June 1940 to August 1952, the English Catholic Church offered the émigré Polish population help based on the fraternal relationship of their respective religious bodies. English Catholic organisations, controlled by elite Catholics, offered support and practical help to the Poles in the hope that, at the end of hostilities, they would return home to a free and independent Poland. However, nationalist elites within the lay groups of the Polish community exploited the help offered to promulgate their territorial claims, namely to re-establish Polish borders that reflected the inter-war period in addition to gaining territory in Eastern Germany as war reparations. These, sometimes public, claims caused the traditionally conservative English Catholic Church a great deal of embarrassment and drew them into debates that reflected on their own relationship with fascist and totalitarian systems elsewhere in Europe. Eventually, by August 1952, with the release of the apostolic constitution Exul Familia, the English Catholic Church was able to distance itself from the Poles and the two communions existed in parallel serving their own congregations a system that endures to the present day in Great Britain.

Citation

Krawiec, M. Displaced Polish elite nationalists and the Catholic Church in England 1940-1952. (Thesis). University of the West of England. Retrieved from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6959307

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 17, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 24, 2022
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6959307
• Award Date: Mar 24, 2022