Prohibition, Censorship, Denial

One of the most important issues for the Polish Episcopate under communism was moral evaluation of sexual activities. Bishops suggested that, along with other immoral activities, homosexuality resulted from the popularization of Marxism and atheization of customs. This article presents a thematic analysis of the episcopal writings from 1945 to 1989, and their evaluation in light of Michel Foucault's theory, in order to discuss Polish episcopal power in the context of its narrative on homosexuality. I present the doctrinal and historical context of the analyzed writings in a trichotomy: the Episcopate of Poland, the Apostolic See, and the authorities of the Polish People's Republic. Moreover, I recognize that components of episcopal discourse suggest a multiplicity of power relations. In the selected period, these forces were the subjects of a game in which the church created strategies and chains of influence, and, as an agent of power, consolidated its position by demanding obedience. This image of the institutional church in Poland was established through a great central mechanism of denial that excluded any possibility of a positive moral evaluation of homosexual and other extramarital acts

Art · Bishops · Context (archaeology) · Denial · Homosexuality · Literature · Narrative · Obedience · Political science · Power (physics) · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · European history and politics · Gender Studies · History · Intellectual Property Rights and Media · Law · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies · Psychology

• The Governmentality of Self and Others

  Open Access•Agnieszka Laddach•Open Theology•2025

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