Communist authorities in south-east Poland have blown up a church — an act unprecedented, in the eyes of the local population, even during the Stalinist era. For several years, the parishioners of Wolkowyja have sought permission from the local authorities to reopen a nineteenth-century church in Rajskie village. This had formerly served a minority Ukrainian Greek-rite Catholic community (a branch of the Christian church which uses the Orthodox form of service but owes allegiance to Rome). Appeals to the district commissioner for religious affairs. Zbigniew Liczmanski, remained unanswered.
Then, on May 14th of this year, the Archbishop of Przemysl, Ignacy Tokarczuk, sent a further letter to Liczmanski. The letter’s response was swift. He ordered the local police to surround the building, and to prepare it for dynamiting. Explosive experts were brought from the neighboring township of Czarna. They refused to place the charges. The secretary of the local party committee was then called in, and arrived with a more party-minded team, and the church was demolished. The first party of explosives experts, who refused to lay the charges, will lose their «salary premium» — 20% of their annual salary.
The reason for the demolition is not clear. However, in recent years, a number of churches and chapels have been built in the Przemysl diocese, either after a long battle with officialdom, or even without official permission. Archbishop Tokarczuk is also known to be a good friend to Polish dissidents. The demolition of the Rajskie church may therefore simply represent an attempt by the local authorities to put the archbishop and the dissidents in their place.
However, there is another explanation. Last February, a letter from Pope John Paul II to the exiled Ukrainian cardinal, Joseph Slipyj, noted that the Ukrainian diocese was vacant, arousing speculation that the Pope might restore the diocese to serve the Ukrainian minority in Poland. Were such a restoration to be made, the Rajskie church might have been given back to the Ukrainians, thus establishing a Ukrainian Catholic center close to the frontier with the Soviet Union. Since the Greek-rite Catholic church in the Soviet republic of the Ukraine was formally «reunited» with the Russian Orthodox church (ie, liquidated) some 33 years ago, the reopening of Rajskie church could have caused a stir. Over the past few months, Soviet anti-religious propaganda broadcasts have taken an increasingly hard line towards the Pope, presenting him as an «advocate of confrontation».
