Stanisław Stomma (born – 21 July 2005) was a Polish lawyer, habilitated doctor of law, specialist in criminal law, academic teacher, publicist, Catholic activist, and politician. From 1957 to 1976, he was a member of Sejm of the Polish People's Republic (II, , , , and terms) representing Znak. From 1981 to 1984, he served as the chairman of the . From 1989 to 1991, he was a senator in the first term and the senior marshal of the in the first term. He was awarded the Order of the White Eagle.
Early life He was the son of Ludwik (1859–1910) and Jadwiga née Jasieńska (1875–1944) and had three sisters: Helena (1901–1972), Zofia (1903–1981), and Aniela (1905–1989). He was born into a landowning family, in the family manor of Šacūnai ( from Kėdainiai and from Šėta) in Lithuania, then under Imperial Russian rule.
Interwar He attended the Sigismund Augustus Gymnasium in Vilnius (1922–1928) and joined the Sodality of Our Lady and the during his studies. Later, he studied law at Vilnius University. From 1928, he was active in the Vilnius branch of the and became its president in the academic year 1929/1930. In 1931, he made his debut as a journalist in the newspaper .
He defended his master's thesis under the supervision of in 1932. After completing his studies, he worked as a non-remunerated judicial trainee, while also working at the rectorate of his alma mater as a student affairs officer. From 1933 to 1936, he was also the secretary of Marian Zdziechowski. At the end of 1936, he briefly joined the editorial board of the magazine Kurier Wileński, and in 1937, he directed the biweekly Pax. In 1937, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled Fault and Causal Connection in the Development of Criminal Law, written under the supervision of . From 1937 to 1938, he collaborated with the newspaper ; for six months (until October 1937), he was a member of the editorial board of this newspaper and lived in Kraków at that time.
In his writings in the 1930s, he dealt with Christian thought, national thought, and the issue of totalitarianism, advocating for so-called Christian nationalism, within which social life was to be built on the basis of national community, but with the recognition of the absolute primacy of Catholic ethics. In 1938, he obtained the position of senior volunteer assistant at the Department of Criminal Law at Vilnius University (headed by Bronisław Wróblewski), but immediately (in June 1938) went on a one-year scholarship to Paris.
World War II In the summer of 1939, he returned to Poland. Following the outbreak of World War II, he was not mobilized due to his health category being "C". In September 1939, he replaced as the editor-in-chief of Kurier Wileński, but after the Soviet troops entered Poland, he left for Riga with his friend Antoni Gołubiew. After the Red Army entered Latvia, he returned to Lithuania, where he went into hiding in the countryside. He returned to Vilnius after the German army entered in June 1941. In 1941, he became a member of the editorial board of the underground magazine Dla Polski, published by Father , and also participated in underground education (his students included Henryk Gulbinowicz and Józefa Hennelowa).
1944 In July 1944, he fled from Vilnius due to the approaching Red Army. In August 1944, he found himself in Laski, where he joined the underground resistance, briefly serving in the ranks of the Stowbtsy-Naliboki Group. In October 1944, he moved to Kraków, where he worked for the . From December 1944 to May 1945, he was a seminarian at the .
Under Stalinism (1946–1956) After leaving the seminary, he became a close collaborator and then a member of the editorial team of Tygodnik Powszechny; during this time, he advocated for seeking compromise with the communist authorities and taking into account political realities. He also briefly collaborated with the magazine Dziś i Jutro. In the autumn of 1946, together with Hanna Malewska, he became the editor-in-chief of the magazine Znak, but de facto from 1947, Hanna Malewska directed the magazine (Stanisław Stomma remained one of its main columnists). From 1947, he participated in meetings of the Kraków Club of Logophages.
In September 1946, he was a signatory of a memorial by Catholic intellectuals to the , appealing for support for the establishment of a political party representing Polish Catholics. In November of the same year, he signed a declaration along with 37 Catholic writers who supported the initiative to create a Catholic political organization. He also participated in an attempt to create, with the consent of the authorities, a Catholic parliamentary representation in connection with the parliamentary elections in 1947 (the initiative, considered belated by the authorities, was ultimately rejected by the Polish Episcopate).
In the autumn of 1946, he published an article titled Maximal and Minimal Social Tendencies of Catholics in the third issue of Znak. In this article, he sought a compromise between Catholicism and socialism, primarily in the sphere of social system reform, arguing that the Catholic Church is not bound to any specific program in this matter. He also emphasized the necessity of building strong spiritual, cultural, and intellectual foundations, providing Catholicism with the opportunity for long-term development. Faced with the aggressive communist policy, he advocated for a retreat to "religious-moral" positions. His proposal met with opposition from a significant part of the Catholic community (debaters included , , , , Jerzy Braun), accusing him, among other things, of a stance of capitulation. Stanisław Stomma subsequently defended his position in an article titled On Apparent Maximization and Imagined Defeatism, published in Tygodnik Powszechny on 20 April 1947. He sought a different path for the functioning of Catholic communities under communism than confrontation or ideological surrender.
From 1 January 1946, he was an employee of the Department of Criminal Law at the Jagiellonian University. In 1947, he habilitated based on his work Sociological Assessment of Certain Concepts of Criminal Law Science (formal habilitation approval was only granted by the higher education authority in 1957). He unsuccessfully applied for a position at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, and in October 1949, he received a notice of termination at Jagiellonian University (he was given a choice: to work at the university or in a Catholic publication), as a result of which he ceased to work at JU on 31 January 1950.
In the issue of Tygodnik Powszechny dated 10 December 1950, together with Jerzy Turowicz, he published an article titled Catholics in People's Poland, in which they declared that while they see many positive aspects in socialism, the socialist ideal is not their ideal, and the separate Catholic position should be respected. In another joint article titled The Polish Experiment, published in Tygodnik Powszechny on 3 February 1952, they positively responded to the of 14 April 1950, suggesting that the apolitical stance of Catholics entails the necessity of loyalty to the state. Faced with escalating anti-Church policies and censorship interference in May 1952, he, along with Jerzy Turowicz and , appealed for the continued publication of Tygodnik Powszechny, declaring the possibility of supporting some aspects of the government's policies (such as economic issues, combating German nationalism and revisionism, alliance with the USSR), but on the condition of maintaining autonomy in non-political matters. During this period, along with other editors of Tygodnik Powszechny, he consulted most strategic decisions with Archbishop Stefan Wyszyński.
After the previous editorial team was removed from Tygodnik Powszechny in June 1953, he was unemployed for about a year. In 1954, he was employed at the National Museum in Kraków, where he worked as the head of the museum library. He also received an advance for a series of essays from the publishing institute Pax. He remained one of the leaders of the former Tygodnik Powszechny editorial team.
From 1956 to 1961 In October 1956, he was part of a group of lay Catholics who announced the establishment of the Nationwide Club of Progressive Catholic Intelligentsia, aimed at forming a "social representation" of Catholic communities. At that time, he, along with other leaders of this movement, was accepted both by Stefan Wyszyński and by Władysław Gomułka. In (issue from October 25–31, 1956), he published an article titled Access to Contemporary Poland, in which he supported the October 1956 reforms aimed at eliminating Stalinist totalitarianism, pointing out that Poland's territorial integrity was guaranteed by the alliance with the USSR. In November 1956, he was re-employed at the Faculty of Law at the Jagiellonian University, although his actual academic work was hindered by his soon-to-be political activities (in the following years, he had only one doctoral student – Andrzej Spotowski, who defended his doctoral thesis in 1970). His application for the title of professor was never considered.
In the following years, he advocated for the program of so-called neo-positivism, within which he sought a compromise with the authorities of the Polish People's Republic that would allow for the free operation of Catholic communities (including the operation of Catholic intelligentsia clubs and parliamentary representation) and would permit concessions by the authorities to the Catholic Church. Therefore, he accepted the alliance with the USSR as geopolitically inevitable and did not question the actual power of the Polish United Workers' Party. He rejected what he called "political romanticism" and "prestige politics" appealing to "grand slogans". However, his goal remained the democratization of the system. He demanded that the Polish government be the expression of the real aspirations of the people and, in the economic sphere, called for breaking away from doctrinairism and for social control over the economy.
In 1957, he ran as an independent candidate in the parliamentary elections (standing in district No. 34 in Kraków), publicly declaring that his goal in the Sejm would be to fight for the rights of believers and defend the interests of the Catholic Church. He also emphasized that Catholic deputies could serve as advisers to Marxists. According to official election results, he received over 249,000 votes, surpassing, among others, Józef Cyrankiewicz. In the Sejm, he became the chairman of Znak parliamentary caucus, as well as the vice-chairman of the and a member of the . In his first parliamentary speech, he stressed that despite ideological differences and "unpleasant past experiences", Catholic deputies shared overarching national goals, including the ideal of a sovereign and just Poland. Already at the beginning of 1958, he observed a departure from the policies initiated in October 1956 (although he considered the most important achievements of that period to be preserved), publicly calling for greater trust in society and enabling greater involvement of non-party individuals. Initially, he maintained optimism regarding the intentions of the Polish United Workers' Party, and therefore, despite the worsening situation of the church, on one hand, he encouraged Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński to make another attempt at reaching an agreement with the party authorities, and on the other hand, along with other Znak deputies, he called on the ruling party to refrain from harassing believers and to accept the historical and social role of the Catholic Church.
From 1957, he began establishing contacts with political circles in West Germany, openly formulating the condition of respecting borders.