Bolesław Kominek (23 December 1903 – 10 March 1974) was a Polish
cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as
Archbishop of Wrocław from 1972 until his death, and was elevated to the
cardinalate in 1973.
Biography
Bolesław Kominek was born in
Radlin II,
Wodzisław Śląski,
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
, to Franciszek, a
miner
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...
, and Kataryna (née Kozielskich) Kominek. Studying at the gymnasium of
Rybnik
Rybnik (Polish pronunciation: ; ) is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, around 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Katowice, the region's capital, and around 19 km (11 mi) from the Czech Republic, Czech border. It i ...
, and at the
Catholic University of Kraków,
he received the
subdiaconate in 1926 from Cardinal
August Hlond,
S.D.B., and the
diaconate in 1926 from Bishop
Arkadiusz Lisiecki.
He was
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
to the priesthood by the same Bishop Lisiecki on 11 September 1927 in
Katowice
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
(
Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
), and then furthered his studies at the
Catholic Institute of Paris and did
pastoral
The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
work among the
Polish immigrants in Paris until 1930. Kominek did pastoral work in the
Diocese of Katowice from 1930 to 1939, and with Polish fugitives during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
until 1945, serving in
Lublin
Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...
, Katowice, and
Upper Silesia.
With the unilateral shifting westward of the border between Poland and Germany, most of the archdiocese of Wrocław/Breslau was now within Poland, but smaller parts were in
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
and
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''ÄŒesko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
. Until the matter was eased by a treaty between
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, claiming succession of pre-1945 Germany, and the
People's Republic of Poland
The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
, the
Holy See
The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...
could not endorse the alteration of the border by reorganizing the identities and boundaries of dioceses untried. It continued therefore to recognize as
vicar capitular
A diocesan administrator (also known as archdiocesan administrator, archiepiscopal administrator and eparchial administrator for the case, respectively, of an archdiocese, archeparchy, and eparchy) is a provisional ordinary of a Catholic part ...
of the archdiocese Father
Ferdinand Piontek (1878–1963), a Polish-speaking
German priest who had been elected after the death of Cardinal
Adolf Bertram on 6 July 1945.
Cardinal Hlond, on the basis of special faculties granted to him but that in reality did not apply to the former German territories, required Piontek to resign from his position of vicar general of the territory east of the new border. On 28 February 1946
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
granted Piontek, when still residing in Wrocław, the rights of a residing bishop. Piontek was expelled from Poland to the
British zone of occupation on 9 July, however, he could return to the archdiocese in March 1947, then taking office at the new
ordinariate in East German
Görlitz
Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...
, built up since September 1945.
On 15 August 1945 Hlond appointed administrators for the three sections into which he divided the Polish archdiocesan territory with effect of 1 September. Kominek was the administrator whom he appointed for the area of
Opole, an appointment that was not recognized by the Holy See. Kominek's ministry there was, in any case, interrupted on 26 January 1951 by the
Polish Communist regime.
Soon after, on 26 April 1951,
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
appointed Kominek
titular bishop
A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese.
By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...
of ''Sophene'' and "Pastoral Representative" with residence in
Wrocław
Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...
.
However, the Communist regime forbade him taking up residence there and from being consecrated. Nevertheless, Kominek was secretly
consecrated as bishop on 10 October 1954 at the hands of Bishop
Franciszek Barda, with Bishops
Franciszek Jop and
Wojciech Tomaka serving as
co-consecrators
A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop.
The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churche ...
. The consecration was kept secret until 1956, when he could finally move to Wrocław and was appointed on 1 December titular Bishop of ''Vaga''. On 19 March 1962 he was raised in rank by being named titular Archbishop of ''Euchaitae''
and on 25 May 1962 was appointed apostolic administrator ''ad nutum
Sanctae Sedis''. On 28 September 1958, he and Bishop Jop were co-consecrators at the episcopal consecration by
Archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
Eugeniusz Baziak of
Karol Wojtyla, the future
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
, as an auxiliary bishop of the
Archdiocese of Krakow.
Between 1962 and 1965, he attended sessions of the
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...
. It was there on 18 November 1965, during the end of deliberations, that the "Message of Polish Bishops to their German brothers" was delivered. This "Message of Reconciliation" was initiated by Archbishop Kominek and he was one of its foremost co-authors, along with Karol Wojtyla and others.
This preamble to open dialogue ended, "In this general Christian and at the same time very humane spirit, we stretch out our hands to you from the benches of the ending Council, we forgive and ask for forgiveness. If you – the German bishops and the fathers of the Council – take our brotherly hands out in fraternity, then we will be able to celebrate our
Millennium
A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...
in a completely Christian way with a clear conscience. We cordially invite you to Poland."
This outreach angered the Communist hierarchy in Poland who claimed that among other things it interfered with the foreign policy of the state.
It provoked verbal attacks on the Church by
First Secretary Gomułka. Throughout the country the communist authorities unleashed a propaganda campaign against the episcopate and personally against
Stefan Wyszyński, the
Primate of Poland.
Church historians, such as Józef Pater, recognized the contribution of Cardinal Kominek to the normalization of diplomatic relations between Poland and Germany, which was finalized in the 1970 "
Warsaw Agreement" which enabled stabilization of church organization in the western and northern reaches of Poland.
In June 1966, ''
Życie Warszawy'' called for the replacement of Cardinal
Stefan Wyszyński by Kominek. Kominek responded by stating, "On questions of the existence of the Church, we
he hierarchyare always together".
On 28 June 1972 in response to the "Warsaw Agreement",
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...
appointed Kominek the second
Archbishop of Wrocław.
In the
consistory of 5 March 1973, he made him
cardinal priest of ''
Santa Croce in Via Flaminia''.
One year later, Cardinal Kominek died in Wrocław, at the age of 70.
He is buried at the
Wrocław Cathedral.
In 2005 a statue was erected to him in Wrocław. It is located on Piaskowa Island near the Tumski Bridge, at the entrance to
Ostrów Tumski.
References
External links
Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church Spherical Panorama on Tube360
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kominek, Boleslaw
1903 births
1974 deaths
People from Wodzisław Śląski
Participants in the Second Vatican Council
Clergy from the Province of Silesia
Archbishops of Wrocław
20th-century Polish cardinals
Jagiellonian University alumni
Polish anti-communists
Cardinals created by Pope Paul VI