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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, December 5, 1980
Page 24
and figh� against the Soviets. The Soviet3 probably could not a�� any
elements o�he�ast German army to help out. Said a Western political
observer in East Germany:
"Can you imagine what the Poles would do if
Russian troops entered the country from one side and German troops from
the other? It would be 1939 all over again, and would certainly inflame
Polish patriotism to a suicidal extreme." Perhaps this is a bit of an
exaggeration, but it emphasizes the dilemma Moscow is in.
The Soviets are already engaged in one hot war in Afghanistan. Stretched
thin, they possibly could not contain a full-blown insurrection in Poland.
Thus, the Soviets stand to lose either way. If they don't act--and the
radical Polish labor leaders are betting they won't--Poland slips away
inch by inch. If the Red Army moves in, but is unsuccessful in quelling
the rebellion, the Soviet Union suffers a major blow to its power and
prestige throughout the entire East bloc. Sleepless nights for the men
in the Kremlin.
Where Is the Catholic Church?
Meanwhile, what is the Roman Catholic Church doing in this unfolding
drama? Not too much, at least openly. From all appearances the Catholic
hierarchy in the country is performing a mediation service, trying to
cool tensions. Above all, it doesn't want to see the Russians move in.
Moscow would certainly put a clamp on church activities, blaming much
of the country's nationalist fervor on the church. Perhaps the church-
perhaps even the pope himself--doesn't yet comprehend the power it
possesses. Writes John Lukacs in the September 20, 1980 issue of The
New Republic, article "The Light in the East":
"During the war Hitler said to his court: 'There are three powers in
Rome: Mussolini, the king, and the pope, and of the three the pope is
the strongest.' He was right, even though the pope was not sure of his
strength. The present pope, a Pole, may be more confident of it. We do
not know. What we know is that now, in Poland, workers born under commu
nism, brought up under communism, have decorated the Lenin factory with
pictures of the pope and of the Virgin Mary, and not merely because of
their tradition of nationalism (in 1849 the Polish nationalists, in their
legion with Garibaldi, fought against the pope in Rome). Their demands
have included more than the indexing of prices of increments in retirement
pay; they have included the broadcasting of the Mass, and religious
freedoms. On the floor of the Lenin factory they k�elt by the hundreds
and the priest came to place the body of Christ in their mouths. A new
kind of light, unexpected and strange, has flared up in the East."
Author Lukacs maintains that 1980 will witness the beginning of the "fatal
loosening of the Soviet order in the East," and that "this loosening is
well-nigh irreversible." He adds:
"If the Russians break into the Polish factory towns with tanks and
flamethrowers, blood will flow; there may be a dreadful silence, for
weeks, months, perhaps years. Then the real struggle will begin, and the
Russians will have a flaring revolution on hand, an unending war of
independence. The Russians know this. This is why, no matter what
happens in Poland in the short run, in the long run, in one form or
another, the end of the Soviet order (which is not the same thing as the
end of the Russian empire) is now conceivable and perceptible--if not yet
altogether at hand."
We may not have long to see whether Lukacs is right or not.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau