BULLA EPISCOPORUM POLONIAE COETUS – GENEZA I KONSEKWENCJE
The Bull Episcoporum Poloniae coetus – its Genesis and Consequences

Summary/Abstract: At the moment when, Paul VI assumed governance, the legal and formal status of the Church on western and northern land of Poland, annexed as a consequence of II world war, was all the time provisional. Church districts established under mandates obtained from the Apostolic Capital in August 1945 by cardinal, August Hlond, the then primate of Poland, were governed by Polish administrators formally remaining titular bishops, and not rightful ordinaries. The situation of the Church in Poland could normalize only after the change of the geopolitical situation of Poland. On 7th December 1970, during the visit of the chancellor of Germany, Willy Brandt in Warsaw a treaty recognizing the borders on the Oder and Nysa rivers was signed. This deed constituted a prelude to further concrete negotiations between the Apostolic Capital and the government of Poland regarding the establishing of the permanent church organization on the so called Regained Territories. When on 17th May 1972, Bundestag ratified the border treaty, the reason for which the Apostolic Capital abstained from the establishing of the permanent church administration on the so called Regained Territory, ceased to exist. Immediately after the ratification of the above mentioned treaty, on 31st May 1972, cardinal Wyszyński addressed a letter to the Pope, requesting, among others, the establishing of the Kamień Pomorski diocese with the capital in Szczecin. The final of the negotiations between the Apostolic Capital and the Episcopate of Poland was effected on 28th June 1972. On that day, cardinal Stefan Wyszyński announced to the public domain the intention of the Pope, Paul VI, presented in the papal bull of Episcoporum Poloniae coetus , who acceding to requests of the Episcopate of Poland adjusted church districts on western and northern land to new conditions founding for new dioceses: of Opole, Gorzów, Szczecin-Kamień Pomorski and Koszalin-Kołobrzeg. By the above mentioned, Paul VI terminated the twenty seven year period of formal temporariness of the organization of the Polish Church on those territories.

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