Word: gierek
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...visible contrast between the church and the ruling regime, even after it has been in power for more than 30 years, was devastating, and John Paul took full psychological advantage of it. His message to the 77-member Polish Bishops' Conference and to tightly smiling Party First Secretary Edward Gierek was the same: the church must be free to accomplish its mission in the world...
Even before his welcoming Mass in Warsaw, John Paul issued his first challenge to the Polish regime. It was presented in the guise of a formal greeting to Party Secretary Gierek. "It is [the church's] mission to make man more confident, more courageous, conscious of his rights and duties, socially responsible, creative and useful. For this activity the church does not desire privileges, but only and exclusively what is essential for the accomplishment of its mission...
...most Communist countries, but the Pope and his bishops want fundamental guarantees: freedom to publish books and periodicals, to broadcast, to build churches and name bishops without interference, the opportunity for Christians to earn jobs and degrees and educate their children in the faith without discrimination. The Pope told Gierek that church-state détente in Poland could be "one of the elements in the ethical and international order in Europe and the modern world, an order that flows from respect for the rights of the nation and for human rights...
...Gierek came to power with a mandate for change. Worker riots in 1970 over increased food prices had toppled the Gomulka regime. The new government tried a policy of rapid economic development, heavily dependent upon Western technology and credits, to bring Poland out of economic stagnation. An international recession and a string of bad harvests led instead to an economic slump; and Gierek, like his predecessor, attempted to end artificial price controls in 1976. Workers took to the streets, and the regime backed down. With no solution in sight, Polish consumers now suffer from endemic shortages of meat. Necessary consumer...
...support. Illegal "flying universities" schedule home lectures on topics like the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland that state classrooms never mention. There are some two dozen illegal samizdat periodicals and dissident organizations for intellectuals, workers and peasants. In its present need to ensure a measure of political order, the Gierek government devoutly desires good relations with the Polish church and the Vatican. That need is a source of the Pope's bargaining power...