The leadership of the Polish People’s Republic considers that the danger of Wojtyła’s move to the Vatican is that it will now clearly be more difficult to use the Vatican as a moderating influence on the Polish episcopate in its relations with the state. The Catholic Church will now make even greater efforts to consolidate its position and increase its role in the social and political life of the country.
At the same time, our friends consider that Wojtyła’s departure from the country also has its positive side, since the reactionary part of the episcopate has been deprived of its leader—one who had an excellent chance of becoming Primate of the Polish Catholic Church.
Aristov criticized the Polish Politburo for compromising its ability to resist the Church’s future demands by its past weakness in permitting the construction of new churches, the ordination of more priests and larger print-runs for Catholic publications.17
At the time of Wojtyła’s election, Poland was probably the world’s most Catholic country. The KGB estimated that 90 percent of the population were Catholic.18 With 569 ordinations in 1978, Poland had the highest ratio of priestly vocations to population anywhere on earth. In total, there were 19,193 Polish priests and 5,325 students in seminaries.19 Somewhat alarmist KGB assessments put the figures higher still.20 A steady rise in religious practice continued over the next few years. According to a secret study circulated to the PUWP central committee, “This phenomenon emerged particularly acutely among the intelligentsia, especially among persons with higher education.” In 1978 25 percent of those with higher education were reported to engage in private prayer at home; by 1983 the figure had risen to over 50 percent. The central committee study plausibly attributed the increase to the “social-political crisis” and the influence of the Polish Pope.21 Even many Polish Party officials felt in awe of Wojtyła’s intense, mystical spirituality. They reported to Moscow that he often spent six to eight hours a day in prayer. On entering his private chapel, aides would sometimes find him lying motionless on the marble floor, his arms outstretched in the shape of a cross.22
The KGB privately denounced some of John Paul II’s first acts in the Vatican as “anti-Soviet gestures.” Among them was his order on the day after his election that the red