The Taboozation of Clerical Homosexuality as a Symptom of Pastoral Power
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0000-0002-2823-8550 Date
2025-10-31
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Academic Organisation for Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development
Abstract
The Catholic Church in Poland determined its own social, cultural, and political position toward the Polish communist state between 1945 and 1989. Based on my query, I state that the ecclesial authorities invariably tabooed the communist accusations of clergy homosexuality despite the evolution of political realities at that time. In this article, I answer the question regarding the reasons for which Polish bishops might have opted for a strategy of tabooization and the features of pastoral power that they therefore manifested. I show that Polish bishops had a status of the ecclesial lawmaker and played the crucial role of the magisterium, and the ecclesial duty of obedience appeared to be a key factor in pastoral power. The strategy of silence toward the communist accusations of clerical homosexuality manifested itself in the political dimension of the Church’s authorities. Following Michel Foucault’s theoretical lectures about pastoral power, I believe that Polish bishops were individuals who, institutionally and intersubjectively, united through a way of thinking, calculating, and understanding what should be done within the framework of power. This occurred at the level of internalized approaches, practices, and submission to control and dependence in the matter of what content could or could not be not presented.
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A. Laddach, The Tabooization of Clerical Homosexuality as a Symptom of Pastoral Power, ,,European Journal of Science and Theology” 21/2025/5, pp. 37-63