Jak powstało orędzie biskupów polskich do biskupów niemieckich z 18 listopada 1965 roku
How Was the Pastoral Letter from the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops on 18 November 1965 Created?

Summary/Abstract: This article marks an attempt to reconstruct the circumstances in which the Polish bishops prepared a pastoral letter to the German bishops on 18 November 1965. The article presents the process of formulating the content, identifies its subsequent versions, specifies the timeline of events from the decision about the preparation of the pastoral letter until its submission to the German bishops. The author made an attempt to identify all the major figures who were involved in the formulation of the document. The sources referred to in literature were critically assessed, while some the opinions held to date in literature were corrected thanks to newly discovered sources, including the manuscript discovered in May 2019. The article ultimately proves that Archbishop Bolesław Kominek was the main author of over 90% of the text. The author showed that Primate Stefan Wyszyński had a certain impact on the pastoral letter. The point in time and the scope of integration of the German bishops in the text were established. Furthermore, the circumstances in which the manuscript was prepared and the final version of the text was signed were described.

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