Surveillance of Homosexual Priests under the Legal and Regulatory Discourses of People's Poland

In this chapter, I focus on People’s Poland direct and indirect discourses of homosexuality, demonstrating that the state shaped narratives that enabled surveillance of and exclusionary policy against homosexuals. The chapter pays special attention to Catholic priests that the state bodies considered to be homosexuals. I employ Foucault’s writings to evaluate the state discourses and stress the state’s recognition of homosexuals as “social parasites” as well as indicate the sources of danger for social order and public health it identifies. However, in certain cases, the security bodies threatened to devalue the positive moral image of the homosexual priest, while in other instances, despite the state’s anti-homosexual approach, in its actions against homosexual clergy it combined the vision of this devaluation with supporting the priests’ high social position. For example, instead of including such priests in the “social parasites” group, the authorities saw them as potential informants about intra-ecclesial attitudes toward the state policy, the Polish Episcopate’s relation with the Apostolic See, the internal relations within the Polish Church, the planned moves regarding the appointment of new Church hierarchy, and other detailed intra-ecclesial issues. Nevertheless, my research shows legal and regulatory laws as communist sources which contributed to an atmosphere of uncertainty for homosexual individuals and queer culture of understatement and silence in the People’s Poland.