Socio-Economic Concepts of Priest Antoni Szymański

Among the Catholic thinkers and social activists of the interwar period priest Antoni Szymański is for sure an exceptional figure. He can certainly be called the leader of the Catholic-social camp in the Second Polish Republic. This is justified not only given his rich literary work in this field, but also because of the numerous functions he performed at that time. He was at the head of the Social Council of the Primate of Poland, the Union of Polish Catholic Intelligentsia, and the Catholic University of Lublin. Over the years he was the chief-editor of „Prąd”, undoubtedly one of the most important Catholic periodicals of that period. In his socio-economic views, he consistently promoted the personalist position, opposing both capitalism based on individualism, and all sorts of collectivist conceptions.