The Catholic Church and the rebirth of civil society: Elite convergence, mobilization and democratic transitions in east-central Europe.

Abstract

In addition to these developments at the elite level, the Church also nurtured moral and religious values at the grassroots level, sometimes in difficult conditions such as in Czechoslovakia. The stronger and more visible position of the Polish Church served as a source of inspiration to Czech and Slovak underground activists. After years of relentless efforts and an intricate process of diffusion, this action at the grassroots level participated in the rebirth of civil society. It catalyzed the larger mobilization of the popular masses, and eventually contributed to the collapse of communism.

The role of the Catholic Church in these two countries was the result of a unique and complex combination of factors. When the Church started to acknowledge the significance of civil society in its diplomacy and put a greater emphasis on the defense of human rights, it set in motion a process of elite convergence and mass mobilization in both Poland and Czechoslovakia. Indeed, as the Church reevaluated its approach toward Eastern Europe, secular dissidents, who became disillusioned with communism, came to conclusions of their own. Their quest for freedom, they realized, demanded the reclaiming of the public sphere and the rebuilding of a civil society on the basis of a rediscovery of moral values and the transcendent. This attempt to live in the truth in essence was not so different from the discourse of the Catholic Church on human rights. In fact, the Church participated in diffusing the very ideas that secular elites were fighting for. Thus, after decades of anticlericalism, secular elites acknowledged that their path had to cross that of the Church. Abandoning their anticlerical stance, secular elites opened the door for an eventual dialogue with the Catholic Church. Such a process, however, only became a reality, because of the constant efforts of a group of individuals, who were strategically located at the junction of both religious and secular spheres.

Ironically, the 1989 revolutions and the transformations that followed, revealed that both the ambition a morally vibrant civil society and the Catholic contribution to the reclaiming of the public sphere were linked with the fate of communism. They did not survive the reality of power and liberal democracy. The socio-economic environment created by political and economic reforms indeed changed the priorities of east central European societies. Factors which had contributed to the positive role of the Catholic Church in the phase of democratic transition, disappeared during the stage of democratic consolidation. The Church failed to assess the significance of these changes and to adjust to them. Consequently, it suffered a backlash. Elites and the Church parted way, while popular masses expressed a growing resentment against what they perceive to be too activist a Church. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This research examines how the Catholic Church contributed to the reemergence of civil society, and by extension to the democratic transition of Poland and Czechoslovakia.