Tasks of the Citizens' Militia Towards the Catholic Church (1944-1990)

The purpose of the article was to present the tasks of the Citizens' Militia (MO) towards the Catholic Church in the years 1944-1990 as well as the attitude of MO officers to the performance of these tasks and the religiosity of the militiamen. In this text, an attempt was made to present the evolution of the tasks of the militia against the Catholic Church, which increased from year to year. These tasks were assigned primarily by the public security apparatus, and then by the Security Service (SB). They mainly consisted in passing on information to the SB, assisting in SB activities, repressing clergy and the faithful in the form of filing requests for punishment and imposing fines. The Citizens' Militia took part in many anti-church actions initiated by the state and party authorities. The author also tried to present religiosity among militiamen and to combat these attitudes by ministerial, militia and communist party authorities. The article was based primarily on archival and printed sources, which clearly show that the Militia was involved in fighting the Catholic Church in Poland.