Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Wrocław has inherited Leopoldinum Academy, which has been in existence since 15 November 1702, run by Jesuits and transformed into the University of Wrocław in 1811. Aft er the Second World War, the Department of Catholic Theology did not reappear at the University but started its independent existence, firstly at Priests’ Seminar as an Academic Theological Centre, and since 1974 as Pontifical Faculty of Theology, recognized by the Apostle’s Capital as the follower of the University of Wrocław. The Faculty conducts uniformed Master of Art studies and Doctorate studies. Moreover, it is in possession of the right to bestow habilitation. Th ere are 25 departments at the Faculty, which are grouped into 4 institutes, 33 independent University workers and 38 Assistant Professors lecture there. There are almost 1900 students studying in the daily system, extramural system, in PHD studies and post-graduate studies.
On the first place, author presents the situation of theological faculties before the II World War. The Roman Catholic Church in Poland had five of them: in Cracow, Wilnius, Lwow, Warsaw and within the framework of Catholic University of Lublin. The four of them developed their educational activity in many various ways at the national universities.
After the II World War, due to the changing border lines of Polish country – the Roman Catholic Church lost theological faculties in Wilnius and Lwow. The Faculty of Theology at the Wrocław University, existing since the year of 1702 and which was active even during the time of II World War (within the border lines of the III Reich), could not exist after the end of the war. In the year of 1954 the authorities of People’s Republic of Poland – without the permission of the Holly See liquidated theological faculties from the Jagiellonian University (founded by Saint Queen Jadwiga in 1397) and from the Warsaw University–removing it arbitrary to the previously non-existent Academy of Catholic’s Theology in Warsaw. The academy was a national school, and Polish Episcopal Conference, under certain conditions, only acknowledged its foundation. Academic degrees and scholars titles of this academy were canonically invalid.
Card. Karol Wojtyla creating the Episcopal Conference of Catholic’s Science and Council of the Polish Episcopal Conference caused reaction of the Holly See. Vatican’s authorities renewed the activity of Faculty of Theology in Wrocław (the year of 1968) and erected new – non-existent till now – Faculty of Theology in Poznań. Moreover, the Holly See did not approve the closure of theological faculties in Cracow and Warsaw. Thank to that, in People’s Republic of Poland – there were five theological faculties, under Church’s jurisdiction, in a similar way to the pre-war territory of the country. In 1974, they received the noble title of “Pope’s faculties”. Certainly, academic degrees and scholars titles, gained at these faculties by their graduates and scholars were invalid to the state authorities. After long negotiations, the Deal (June 30th 1989) was accepted by the government of People’s Republic of Poland and Polish Episcopal Conference. The Deal stated the approval of all Pope’s faculties and the faculty of philosophy of Society of Jesus in Cracow. In return, the Holly See resumed Academy of Catholic’s Theology (ACT) and granted its canonical validation. Imposed Deal was a serious contribution to the normalization of Church-State relations in Poland. It is certain, that it was also a great achievement of the Roman Catholic Church, and was accomplished– as it is commonly considered – not without the influence of electing, on October 16th 1978, card. Karol Wojtyla for pope John Paul II.
The aim of the paper is to present the metropolis of Wroclaw with special emphasis laid upon its socio-economic development. Starting with a concise presentation of the history of the city after the political and economic transition, we subsequently carry out a descriptive analysis of the economic development of Wroclaw and its specifics. It provides us with a grounding to highlight what a development narrative of the metropolis has been up to now and how it should be shaped in the future. Further on, we present the main challenges for the development path of Wroclaw. With obtained outcomes we clearly show that the Wroclaw metropolitan area distinguishes itself against the background of Krakow, Poznan and Szczecin in terms of its development. However, the current development narrative seems to be coming to an end which implies a comprehensive policy feedback.
Nowadays, the ubiquity of changes determines a new approach to programming development. In this situation, it is necessary to update the strategy of socio-economic development in many cities. The aim of the paper is to present the process of updating the city’s development strategy on selected examples (Katowice, Cracow, Poznań, Warsaw and Wrocław), through the prism of the scale and tools of public participation. Wrocław is a centre that particularly approached the implementation of the megatrend of public participation in the work on updating the development strategy. The paper delineates differences between public consultations and real public participation. The following research methods were used in the study: literature research, analysis of source texts, benchmarking and comparative analysis. The time horizon covers the period of public participation in the documents’ construction and is different for particular cities selected for analysis, however, it falls in the years 2013-2017.
Some consider the multiculturality of Wrocław to be its obvious and socially legitimised “property”, whereas others view it as controversial and refutable construct. In the paper, we would like to investigate the multiculturality of the Lower Silesia’s capital taking into account its internal differentiation, which is mostly due to the adjudicating authorities – city authorities, its citizens and researchers — as well as observable dynamics. Hence, we propose to inspect the following: firstly, the real differentiation of the social structure of Wrocław’s inhabitants and its transformations related mostly to the influx of Ukrainians, who change the ethnic cityscape; secondly, the politics of municipal authorities regarding the promotion and strengthening of the city’s image as the multicultural, open and tolerant “meeting place”, as well as initiatives inscribed therein and other observable, contradictory events; thirdly, the evaluation of Wrocław’s multiculturality and its selected aspects performed by the city’s inhabitants and revealed in the research on this phenomenon in 2011 and in two editions of Social Diagnosis of Wrocław (2014 and 2017).