At the close of World War II, the Soviet Union regained much of the heavily Greek Catholic lands in Poland and wasted little time in taking action against Greek Catholics. In April 1945, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered that all bishops and several clergy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church be arrested, put on trial and then imprisoned. Within a year after Stalin’s declaration, the Ukrainian Catholic Church was liquidated. This process caused the death of thousands of Greek Catholic clergy and worshippers, whether by direct methods or by long stays in forced Soviet labor camp. At the same time, the Soviet government oversaw the creation of an “Initiative Group” made up of Greek Catholic priests. This group gave off the legitimacy of speaking on behalf of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, when in reality, it was simply made up of clergy who could be easily convinced to bend to the Soviet’s will. They did so by abolishing the Union of Brest, which returned Greek Catholic property back to the Russian Orthodox Church. While each country overtaken by the Soviet Union had a different method of abolishing the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Poland accompanied the abolishment with “Operation Vistula,” the forced resettlement of approximately 140,000 Ukrainians, approximately two-thirds of them Greek Catholic, from southeast Poland to the “Recovered Territories,” which largely lay in the northern and western portions of the country. The logistics of this displacement were purposely designed to keep Greek Catholics well dispersed and make it difficult for them to effectively organize. Polish leaders then decreed that property owned by the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the southeast region of Poland would be owned by the state, effectively delegalizing the Church in Poland by July 1949. In the years following, many of those now-state-owned churches were destroyed.
Following Operation Vistula, the Soviet government continued to closely monitor Greek Catholic clergy they felt to be threating. But for most Greek Catholic clergy, the bigger threat was the constant pressure to convert to Roman Catholicism as an act of “Polonization” designed to secure their loyalty to the country. Several of these clergy members were readily accepted into the Roman Catholic Church and still allowed to celebrate liturgies, though in a rather reduced role. On the other hand, others found themselves rejected from full acceptance into the Roman Catholic Church, largely based on their Ukrainian ethnicity and practice of a Byzantine-based faith. For many former clergy members and devout Greek Catholics, the preferred course of action was to simply assimilate by entering a secular-based career.
Some small signs of hope for the future of Greek Catholics in Poland began to emerge around 1956. In June of that year, the Ukrainian Social-Cultural Association was formed and raised prospects of legalizing the Ukrainian Catholic Church, though their requests were not met. Throughout that year, some Greek Catholic priests began to be released from Soviet labor camps and returned to Poland. Perhaps most significantly, the Polish state began to allow Greek Catholic pastoral services, as long as Roman Catholic clergy would supply them. Nine Greek Catholic pastoral service units were formed in 1956, but they continued to expand, reaching nearly 60 units just over a decade later. The emergence of such pastoral service units allowed for the training of certain clergy members as bi-ritualists familiar with both the Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic traditions — while these members had to be officially ordained Roman Catholic priests first and foremost, it provided an avenue by which Greek Catholic traditions could continue to be cultivated and promoted for the next generation. While the so-called “thaw” of 1956 did mark a slight deregulation in policy related to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Greek Catholics still had to keep their faith traditions and practices underground, and there was nowhere for them to actively learn more about the faith.
Following Operation Vistula, the Soviet government continued to closely monitor Greek Catholic clergy they felt to be threating. But for most Greek Catholic clergy, the bigger threat was the constant pressure to convert to Roman Catholicism as an act of “Polonization” designed to secure their loyalty to the country. Several of these clergy members were readily accepted into the Roman Catholic Church and still allowed to celebrate liturgies, though in a rather reduced role. On the other hand, others found themselves rejected from full acceptance into the Roman Catholic Church, largely based on their Ukrainian ethnicity and practice of a Byzantine-based faith. For many former clergy members and devout Greek Catholics, the preferred course of action was to simply assimilate by entering a secular-based career.
Some small signs of hope for the future of Greek Catholics in Poland began to emerge around 1956. In June of that year, the Ukrainian Social-Cultural Association was formed and raised prospects of legalizing the Ukrainian Catholic Church, though their requests were not met. Throughout that year, some Greek Catholic priests began to be released from Soviet labor camps and returned to Poland. Perhaps most significantly, the Polish state began to allow Greek Catholic pastoral services, as long as Roman Catholic clergy would supply them. Nine Greek Catholic pastoral service units were formed in 1956, but they continued to expand, reaching nearly 60 units just over a decade later. The emergence of such pastoral service units allowed for the training of certain clergy members as bi-ritualists familiar with both the Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic traditions — while these members had to be officially ordained Roman Catholic priests first and foremost, it provided an avenue by which Greek Catholic traditions could continue to be cultivated and promoted for the next generation. While the so-called “thaw” of 1956 did mark a slight deregulation in policy related to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Greek Catholics still had to keep their faith traditions and practices underground, and there was nowhere for them to actively learn more about the faith.