EN
The main subject of the analysis was the activity and political concepts of lay Cath-olics who operated on the Polish political scene in the 1980s. This group of Catholic activists had been active in the public sphere for many years; in the 1980s, they orga-nized themselves in a Polish Catholic-Social Union. This community was not among the most important political parties of the then political system; it was not a major factor stabilizing the system or a major source of change. Nevertheless, it did have a prominent feature – it had a parliamentary representation and participated in political practice; it also had a limited impact on political decisions. The main motive of their actions was to promote Catholic values in the public sphere, but also an attempt to create a Catholic party, in the right circumstances. Still, there is a disagreement, both among researchers and actors of the political scene of the time, about the clear-cut assessment of their politi-cal commitment. Nonetheless, it probably can be said that their attitudes are within the concept of semi-opposition and paralegal opposition, and, to some extent, in what we understand by the term of opposition of value systems.