Politicians in Cassocks and the Role of Religion in the Activities of the Conciliatory Faction of the Real Politics (1905–1923)

Abstract

The Faction of the Real Politics (Stronnictwo Polityki Realnej) functioning between 1905 and 1923 was a small party of a conciliatory-conservative profile. The attitude towards the Catholic Church as an institution and towards faith played a very important role in its political programme. Despite few attempts of turning the party into a formation of religious profile, the administration of the Faction decided that it will stay a strictly political organization. There were three fractions functioning within the party, including the extreme right-wing and ultramontanic, as well as moderately liberal. For both of them, the Church and faith had a specific meaning as the institutional tools of social control, the foundations of morality and humans’ value system. The SPR included the followers of many religions and the atheists, and next to them catholic clerics, some of whom played a role of the party’s leaders. The realists often spoke out in their newsprint apparatus, newspaper “The Word” (Słowo), but also in other periodicals and independent editions of journalistic writings, defending the Church and its hierarchs, as well as the decisions undertaken by them which were political in character, but not always popular in the Polish society. The realists treated Catholic Church as a natural ally in their fight against the socialism as well as a partner in their efforts for achieving reconciliation with the invaders’ country.