Represje wobec duchowieństwa diecezjalnego w Polsce Ludowej. Problemy metodologiczne, chronologia i statystyka

The Author proposes how to define the ‘repressive measures’ used by security authorities of what was the People’s Republic of Poland (PRP) against the Roman Catholic clergy. He subsequently discusses chronological aspects of these repressive measures as well as outlines the research area. According to his suggestion, Roman Catholic clergy within the limits of post-Yalta Poland, the PRP of the period 1944/1945–1989 ought to be subject to research. Use in ecclesiastical historiography of not-quite-express nomenclature, derived from a purely theological domain, is a disputable issue. Instead of a martyrologium, a more adequate name, such as dictionary or lexicon, ought to be used, the Author suggests. This would not preclude research documenting heroic attitudes in light of the faith, which in postulated beatification procedures is defined under a shared name of martyr. The final section of this article presents a series of categories of repressive measures – both in terms of numbers and object-wise – with the scholarly research consequences ensuing from it.