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THE DEEDS OF FAITH by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski

THE DEEDS OF FAITH

By

Pub Date: Sept. 7th, 1966
Publisher: Harper & Row

Cardinal Wyszynski is best known today for his strong resistance to the efforts of the Polish government to repress the individualistic tendencies of the historically irrepressible Poles. This book, while it is, so far as material is concerned, a collection of Wyszynski's sermons, lectures, memoranda, allocations, etc., becomes a sort of interpretive autobiography framed against the historical background of modern Poland; the contents develop an effective and authentic picture of the life not only of the author but also of his unhappy country. The forty-four pieces are divided into four categories by subject: the rights of man, the priests of Poland, Poland as ""a nation of heroic hope,"" and the people of Poland. It is a tribute to Wyszynski's abilities, and to the talents of Mr. Alexander T. Jordan, the translator of these pieces, that the problems of a remote and obscure country in these pages become vital and interesting. One could, on occasion, wish for more historical objectivity -- it is hard to recognize, for example, in the cardinal's idealistic sketch of the Polish national character, the only conquered nation of World War II in which the Nazi extermination of the Jews received the public's support and active cooperation. Despite such occasional lapses into a dutiful pietas, The Deeds of Faith may be recommended as a coherent and highly readable apologia by one of the great warriors in the battle for religious freedom in Eastern Europe.