World: We Want God

In the continuing battle between the Communist government and the Roman Catholic Church of Poland, flinty ideological engagement is the rule, but violence is not uncommon. Site of the latest clash is Torun, 110 miles from Warsaw, where Communist authorities tried to requisition part of the Redemptorist monastery, only to be stopped by an angry crowd shouting “We Want God!”

Not long ago. Poland’s doughty Cardinal Wyszynski ordered priests to ignore a government order barring them from giving religious instruction. The government so far has failed to press its order, and even Communist Boss Wladyslaw Gomulka sounds almost resigned about church-state affairs. Said he recently: “Religion is firmly anchored in a great part of the population. It is difficult to say how long religious beliefs will maintain themselves in Poland. Some think for decades, maybe even longer.”