Communist authorities contra Brother Kloc. The battlefront against the illegal trade of devotional items in the Koźle district in 1965
Abstract
The article presents the case of one of the monks of the Catholic Church. In the author’s opinion, this case is a good illustration of the realities of the clergy in the period of People’s Republic of Poland. Wojciech Kloc from the Albertine Brothers traded devotional objects in order to earn funds for the renovation of the roof of the monastery. For this reason, he was detained by the militia in the vicinity of one of the churches in Kędzierzyn (the Koźle district). The militia took away both the devotional items he was trading and the money found on him. The monk’s deed was recognised as a crime under the Act of 1958 on the permissions for non-public economic units to be engaged in industry, craft, trade and some services. The District Court in Koźle sentenced Brother Wojciech Kloc to a fine, ordered him to pay the court costs and ordered forfeiture of the devotional items to the State Treasury. The present article is based on the archival documents from the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance.
Keywords:
People’s Republic of Poland, trade in the period of People’s Republic of Poland, freedom of conscience and religion, religious freedom, church-state relations, monks, clergy, Church in the period of People’s Republic of Poland, law on religion, Catholic ChurchReferences
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University of Opole
Dr hab., prof. UO, Wydział Prawa i Administracji, Uniwersytet Opolski, ul. Katowicka 87 A, Opole
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3504-0497License
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