ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the pluralistic consequences of the Church. The significance of Church-State relations for student theater and for cultural life in general is that a center of power and authority other than the Party exists in Poland. Throughout the Stalinist period the Church publicly battled against the Party, and the Znak group resolutely attempted to maintain itself as a forum for liberal Catholic expression. The very beginnings of the Polish nation also marks the beginnings of Polish Catholicism. One of the most important student theaters of the post-1970 period, Theater 77 of Lodz, in its work reflecting upon the socio-political situation of contemporary Poland, pays significant attention to Polish Catholicism. If the only cultural tradition which existed in opposition to the Marxist traditions of the Party was the Catholic one, the cultural orientation it would promote could conceivably be as hostile to cultural autonomy as is the orthodox Marxist orientation.
