"Catholic Activism Behind the Iron Curtain"
Garrett Hall Commons / UVA

The Catholic Church is often identified by its cautious, tradition-preserving characteristics, but highly sophisticated forms of religious activism--especially by Catholic lay and clerical ctivists--are widely recognized for their central role in resisting and successfully undermining Communist rule in Eastern Europe. How was this activism manifested, and why and in what ways did it succeed? What, more specifically, were the theological responses to Stalinism and to de-Stalinization? What role did religious organizations in the West play in this activism? And how did these various forms of resistance aid the transformation of Catholic-Jewish relations? Four leading historians take up these questions in a series of public lectures and discussions that will occur on-Grounds at UVA on Friday, October 26, 2012.  For directions to Garrett Hall, click here.  

The St. Anselm Institute is pleased to cosponsor this all-day public symposium with the UVA Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies. 

  All are welcome to attend one or more of the day's scheduled events.

9:00am--Welcome

9:15-10:30am--"Building a Catholic Press and Intellectual Life under Communism: The Case of Jerzy Turowicz and the Catholic Weekly Magazine TYGODNIK POWSZECHNY"--Lecture/Open Discussion with Ambassador Maciej Kozłowski 
Maciej Kozłowski is the former Polish Ambassador to Israel and former Chargé d'Affaires at the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. He currently serves as Deputy Director of the Department for Africa and the Middle East at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A historian by training, Ambassador Kozłowski has long been affiliated with TYGODNIK POWSZECHNY, and he has published several academic works, including most recently Difficult Questions in the Polish-Jewish Dialogue (2007). 

10:45am-12:15pm--"Fear, Caritas, and Modernity: The Politics of Love and of Sin in Polish Catholicism during the Communist Period"--Lecture/Open Discussion with Prof. Brian Porter-Szűcs
Brian Porter-Szűcs is Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a specialist in the history of 19th- and 20th-century Poland. His latest book is entitled Faith and Fatherland: Catholicism, Modernity, and Poland (Oxford University Press, 2011).

12:15pm-2pm--Lunch

2:00-3:30pm--"From Enemy to Brother: a Revolution in Catholic-Jewish Relations"--Lecture/Open Discussion with Prof. John Connelly
John Connelly is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a specialist in the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century, particularly Poland and (East) Germany. His latest book is entitled From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965 (Harvard University Press, 2012).

3:45-5:00pm--"Solidarity before Solidarity: Cross-Iron Curtain Catholic Cooperation"--Lecture/Open Discussion with Prof. Piotr H. Kosicki
Piotr H. Kosicki is ACLS New Faculty Fellow and Lecturer in History and Associate Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a specialist in the transnational history of late-modern Europe, particularly Poland and France. He is currently preparing a book entitled Europe Between Catechism and Revolution: Catholicism, Poland, and the Social Question, 1891-1991.

5:15pm--Light reception

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