During Communism, the Polish bishops presented a narrative about (homo)sexuality with in order to create the image of a righteous moral and social life that was to influence the Catholics. In my research I conduced a thematic analysis of this narrative. I highlight the doctrinal and Polish social-religious context to foreground tendencies in the formation of Church teaching about homosexuality as well as the importance of the Church in Poland to its formation. Then, I show the factors that characterize the episcopal discourse’s content and language about homosexuality, recognizing that components of episcopal discourse suggest a specificity of Church potential power in relation to Polish society. Polish Episcopate created discourse in which homosexuality became a disturbing object of description, something that did not show itself ostentatiously, but used masks and insidiously lurked. The Episcopate’s documents provided no space for individual sexual agency of priests, bishops and laity other than the one expected by the hierarchical Church, despite the fact that some Polish bishops probably were homosexuals. Thus, (homo)sexuality became a detailed private-public object of the asymmetrical relationship between on the one hand the clergymen (including bishops) and lay individuals, and on the other hand the Church as a strong magisterial and sacramental power structure.
Agnieszka Laddach (2026) studied this question.