Mariavite - Relations Between Mariavites and Roman Catholics

Relations Between Mariavites and Roman Catholics

Since the 1970s the Roman Catholic and Old Catholic Mariavite churches have worked at reconciliation. The Polish bishops apologized for the problems that had engendered the beginnings of the Mariavite movement. Also their attitude toward Kozłowska changed, and they affirmed she was a woman of great piety and religiosity. In 1972 the Jesuit priest Stanisław Bajko, the secretary of the Polish Episcopate Commission for Ecumenism, did theological research on the revelations of Kozłowska. He did not find any traces of discordance with Roman Catholic doctrine. The Mariavites were pleased that the Holy See recognised as true the revelation of Faustina Kowalska about the Lord's Grace. They said nota bene took place in Płock, which was for the Mariavites a clear sign that God has repeated this message to the people.

The influence of Kozłowska was seen to be too strong; this is why she was the victim of harsh attacks (called often the incarnation of a devil, as in the satiric article "Where the devil cannot go, there he will send a woman" from 1906). Her activities had begun to be criticized by the bishop of Płock as early as 1897. The strongest point of this accusation was that she was treated by many Mariavites as a living saint. She was treated by Mariavites as a very good and pious person before the condemnation of the pope, but this situation was not unique in Christian history. Archbishop Kowalski used a hagiographical style in calling her "the embodyment of the Holy Spirit on earth" in his writings.

In 1903 the Archbishop of the Warsaw diocese forbade laypeople from observing some otherwise approved devotions of the Roman Catholic rite (e.g. the Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament and the Perpetual Help of Our Lady), which were considered most important by the Mariavite faction. He called their devotion to these "excessive" and unnecessary.

As the movement became more visible, it attracted critics. The newspapers were publishing a number of satiric articles and the cabarets were laughing at the Mariavites in their songs and plays. This led to the more violent acts against the Mariavite churches and chapels. The most difficult year was 1906, when in a few places riots and the murder of Mariavites took place. They were generally connected with the problem of ownership, because in many places Mariavite priests with the majority of believers of the parishes wanted to take over the churches, which in many cases the Mariavite believers had built, while according to the law, they were confiscated and claimed to belong to the Catholic Church.

The Church struggled during the inter-war period after Poland regained its independence. Mariavites were discriminated against, and there were "Mariavite pogroms". In these days the leaders of the Mariavite Church were very often sued in court. Archbishop Kowalski had to appear in front of the tribunal in 20 cases; he was accused for blasphemies against God, the Bible, the Church, and the Sacraments, betrayal of the country (implicit treason), of socialism, communism, theft, frauds, lies, etc. In the most important process, he was blamed for sexual abuses that had taken place in the Płock cloister. In 1931 he was found guilty and finally sent for two years to prison between 1936 and 1938. The press published articles demanding the criminalization of the Mariavite Church.

Because they had been recognized by the Tsarist authorities, the Mariavites were criticized as pro-Russian and pro-socialist, and suggested as collaborators with the occupiers. The very early Mariavites became aware of the problems among the workers, and they directed many social activities based on their interpretation of Christianity. For many Poles, "Polishness" was strongly connected with the Roman Catholic faith. Rejection of the faith was equivalent with rejection of nationality.

The history of relations between the Mariavites and Roman Catholics could be divided into two periods. The first was when the Mariavite Church was emerging and forming its institutional shape. This period was full of mutual distrust, suspicions and insults. The worst time was between 1906 and 1911, shortly after separation of the Mariavites, and between 1923 and 1937, when Polish nationalism was ardent.

The second was the post-World War II period, which was affected by two events: the oppression of all churches under decades of Communist rule in Poland, and the changes introduced by Vatican II. Those circumstances led to the opening of dialogue and closer connections between Christian denominations. The progress in ecumenical reconciliation between the Old Catholic Mariavite Church and Catholic Church in Poland is now underway. (However, the Felicjanów denomination rejects any possibility of the rapprochement with Catholics.)

The papal residence and observatory at Castel Gandolfo has been a site of ecumenical activities. In the 1980s observations at Castel Gandolfo were led by the Rev. Konrad Rudnicki, a Polish astronomer who was also a priest and professor of the Old Catholic Church of the Mariavites.