Post-war Lower Silesia was intended to be a "laboratory of socialism" by the communists. Hence, they developed and pursued a special policy towards the Catholic Church. The book highlights the specificity of the pastoral ministry provided by the successive rulers of the Church in Wroclaw in the realities of the communist state. It analyses, for example, the role of Cardinal Kominek and it presents the system of repression aimed at diocesan clergy and religious orders and limiting theological education. It also shows the Church's response to the process of secularization in the Lower Silesian society.
The first work in English on the struggle of the Catholic Church in Lower Silesia with the communist regime after World War II.