Historical calendar – the anniversary of the arrest by the Prussian authorities of Archbishop Mieczysław Ledóchowksi, who opposed the politics of Kulturkampf.
Today, in our calendar, we will look at the times of the brutal Germanization of Prussian business by the clerk Otto von Bismarck.
In the 1970s, Chancellor II of the Reich focused on the fight against the Catholic Church, which he considered a threat to German unity. In 1872, he appointed Adalbert Falk as Minister for Religion, Education and Health. At the time of its office, a number of laws were adopted limiting the power of churches, including the most fundamental in May 1873 (‘May Acts’).
Their records stated that the law and state courts were superior to the law and the ecclesiastical courts and ruled that the judgments of the Holy See ceased to apply, as well as the abolition of church supervision over primary education. During the debate on the fresh Kutlurexamen i.e. the culture exam for clergy, whose training would be overseen by the state, the Progressive organization defined the run as grossen Kulturkampf that is, the ‘great cultural struggle’ and this word has been adopted by all stakeholders.
The Catholic Church opposed in peculiar the fresh examination before taking up the priestly service (diploma from German advanced school and 3 years of theological studies at German university) and the request that all clerical nominations had to be approved by the state. Bishops refused to introduce this law in their dioceses, and hundreds of clergymen were fined or jailed for disobedience.
Archbishop Mieczysław Ledóchowski, whom many considered to be a submissive German politician, besides resisted. He ignored the May Act in his jurisdiction, in which he had the full support of the Pope.
Kulturkampf However, it besides had a chauvinistic aspect, as Bismarck felt that Poles should be Germanized, as did the Danish in Schleswig-Holstein, and was peculiarly hostile to them. In his mind, the clergy had to be German citizens, and German was to replace Polish as an authoritative language of teaching in all schools.
Ledóchowski continued to personally appoint priests and ordered them to usage Polish language in seminars and another church functions, and urged them to open private Polish schools.
After being punished with respective fines, the Archbishop received a letter from Günther, the deputy president of the Poznań state on 24 November 1873, in which the same, citing 1 of the May Act, wrote: "...I have the honour to call on Your Archbishop to place the Archbishop's office and ask Go within a week for an appropriate affirmative responseand in the absence of specified a declarationI will be forced to urge the implementation of the trial at the royal court for church affairs".
Mieczysław Ledóchowski replied: “I regulation a part of the Holy Church, which was marked me by the Holy Father. No secular power can destruct this message".
In retaliation, the government closed seminars and church schools. The Archbishop was arrested at 4 a.m. on 3 February 1874 and imprisoned in Ostrów Wielkopolski. On 18 April, a judgement was handed down in Berlin to remove him from office. The fight of the Catholic Church with Culturekampf It has now besides become a fight of Poles for their language, past and culture. The Archbishop became a symbol of opposition and a national hero of Poland.
From everywhere, the words of support began to flow spontaneously. Archbishops of Cologne, Wrocław and Pelplina sent letters, Catholic organizations in Belgium, Austria and England sent delegations. Many Polish friends and relatives, including Czartoryski from Gołuchów, Chłapowski, Morawski, Lubomirski and Sapieh, visited Mieczysław in prison. Mieczysław's secretary, Fr. Meszczyński, came to live and work with him on diocesan issues, and his individual butler, Mr. Olejniczak, came to “inhabit” in prison to look after him.
On 3 February 1876, 3 Berlin Ministry of Justice officials arrived to take Mieczysław to Berlin, where he was told he would be released if he left the country. Just as his parent was erstwhile expelled from the Russian partition, now he himself was expelled from the Prussian partition.
Mieczysław immediately sent a telegram to the Pope, thanking him for his appointment to the Cardinal, and a pastoral letter to the faithful of his diocese, thanking them for their support and apologizing that he was not given the chance to say goodbye to them.
Then through Prague and his brother's home in Hradish (today Hradchanach) Mieczysław went to Krakow. Crowds greeted him everywhere at railway stations. large receptions were held in palaces and church institutions, and there were full approval articles in newspapers. The Austrian authorities were very afraid about this fresh increase in Polish nationalism, which may have posed a threat. Therefore, they insisted that Mieczysław should leave the Austrian Presidency in a fewer days and halt him from going to Lviv.
He was besides enthusiastically welcomed in Vienna, where he visited his parents' grave at Währing Cemetery. To avoid diplomatic tension, he did not halt at the palace of the papal nuncio, but stayed with the Jesuits, where the nuncio visited him. To spare Austria further trouble, he moved to Rome, where he arrived on March 3, a period after being released from prison.
Mieczysław now officially received the Cardinal's hat. He was inactive the primate of Poland and Archbishop of Gniezno-Poznań, holding these offices by correspondence and accepting many pilgrimages from Poland.
In 1877 he refused to appear in the court of Inowrocław in the Prussian partition, where he was summoned for violating German law, for he did not renounce his office.
Germany then asked the Italian Government to extradite it. erstwhile Mieczysław informed the Pope about this, he was immediately "internated" in the Vatican to supply protection from the Italian police. Finally, Italy refused extradition. Meanwhile, the German government continued to urge the Pope to remove Mieczysław from the position of Archbishop of Gniezno-Poznań and Primate of Poland. The fight for the Church and Polish...
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
