The Slovak aggression on Poland in September 1939 had led to an incorporation of 14 villages situated in Upper Spiš, the so called Zamagurie, into the Slovak state. The parishes which were situated on this territory (functioning as the Spiš Deanery in the Polish Church administration) had passed to the jurisdiction of the Spiš bishop, having previously been excluded from subordination to the Krakow archbishop. Six Polish priests had remained on their posts until April 1940. The priestly services performed by them caused numerous legal problems. An example of such problems may be the provisions of the personal marriage law which remained in force in Slovakia, particularly as regards the civil-legal effectiveness of the marriages contracted before Polish priests; in view of these provisions, such marriages were considered invalid, unless the priest had taken an oath of allegiance to the Slovak state. The situation of the Polish priests had led to arguments between the bishop metropolitan of Krakow Adam Sapieha and the Slovak church hierarchs or else the Slovak lay authorities. Contrary to the widespread opinion to be found in Polish research as well as in the popular opinion, the Polish priests who had been deprived of their parishes were not at all mistreated. They returned to the General Gouvernement or else were also placed in Slovak monasteries. Repressions directed against Polish priests concerned above all their negative attitude towards the Slovak state and the local population. In the years 1940–1945, it was the Slovak priests who were in charge of the Spiš parishes. After Upper Spiš had been taken over by the Polish army, the Slovaks, including the priests, were subjected to repressions. The example of priest Franciszek Móš who, following a few months spent in custody, was subsequently expelled from Poland, is not an isolated case. By the end of 1945, the Slovak priests had left the territories which were taken over by Poland. After taking over the recovered parishes, the Polish priests discriminated against Slovak parishioners, among other by making it difficult for them to perform the religious rites in the Slovak language. Such conduct was the cause of the complaint lodged by the Consul General of Czechoslovakia with the Polish authorities. The attitude of the Polish priests was on the whole accepted by the Polish church hierarchy, including the bishop metropolitan Adam Sapieha.
Establishing a Polish-Czechoslovak border in summer 1920 made Poland include 9 parishes of the Spis diochese, namely the whole decanate from Niedzice. The decanate included administratively into the Archdiocese in Cracow, was officially called a decanate from Spis. Slovak priests administering it were still subject to jurisdiction of Jan Vojyassak, a bishop from Spis. Only when Poland concluded a concordat, and pope bull Vixdum Poloniae unitas jurisdiction over the decanate in Spis belonged to Adam S. Sapiecha, a cardinal and archbishop from Cracow. As a result of the changes in the Polish-Slovak border, in September 1939, the decanate from Spis returned to the Spis diocese, under a traditional label of the decanate from Niedzice (from 1872, that is the date of its formation). Only Slovak priests worked there, starting from 1 November 1940. Having changed a Polish-Czechoslovak border (on 20 May 1945) the decanate in Spis returned to the Archdiocese in Cracow while its jurisdiction was handed over to Adam S. Sapiecha, a cardinal and archbishop in Cracow beginning from 1 November 1945. In the second half of 1945 Slovak priests who still worked there, became all of a sudden the objects of brutal aggression of the bodies of the public and self-government administration of the county in Nowy Targ, Secret Service, militia and army, as well as some Polish priests: there are three cases of imprisonment, intimidation, and criminal threatening, forcing to leaving Poland before 1 November 1945.
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