The Problem of Pastoral Care of the Armenian Catholics in the Polish Army in the Inter-war Period

Abstract

The Armenian Catholic Church in the Second Polish Republic was represented by the Lviv archdiocese numbering ca. 5000 believers. The question whether there was in the Polish Army in the inter-war period military pastoral care for Armenian Catholics has not been unambiguously explained in historiography. The paper seeks to deal with this task. The author explains that in view of a small number of Armenian Catholic soldiers (several dozen persons dispersed in various garrisons, i.e. a fraction of a per mille of all soldiers in the Polish Army), who could take advantage of the ministry of Roman-Catholic priests, such pastoral care did not exist. There was, however, in the army Rev. Franciszek Karkowski (1888-1970) as a chaplain. He was born in a Roman-Catholic family, but was ordained for the Lviv Armenian archdiocese and was incardinated there. As a military parish priest in Łowicz, he ministered for Latin Catholics and in the Latin rite. His role in the case of Armenian Catholics in the Polish Army was „limited to issuing an opinion in matter of this rite, inasmuch as the Field Bishop would demand it” (P. Niezgoda, 1932).