ABSTRACT
The fundamental difference between Catholic countries and Eastern Europe is that the ideology of the eastern part of Europe is anti-Catholic and is based not on traditional religion but on a philosophic conception of recent origin. During the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, Poland was the most tolerant country in Europe. With the declaration of Polish independence in 1918 secularism was confined to the public school system, yet private Catholic schools existed. The Russian Orthodox Church, both in the Tsarist past and the Communist present, was, and is, sub-servient to the secular government, whilst the Polish Catholic Church was, and remains, independent of the national secular government and subservient to Rome. The new government started persecuting all Catholic priests, who refused compliance with the new pro-Communist constitution. The Communist government is all-powerful; all private schools are closed and Marxian atheism is the controlling ideology..
