5.2.1 “The students fulfilled their religious obligations… but without excessive zeal.”
—Tadeusz Łepkowski, student. A free Polish school in occupied France (2012), based on Wolna szkoła polska w okupowanej francji (1990).
At the high school, the situation was identical to what it had been in pre-war Poland: collective morning and evening prayers were compulsory, also before lessons and meals, as were religious instruction classes, attendance at Sunday services, mass service for boys, confession and communion before Christmas and Easter. The students fulfilled their religious obligations as a matter of course, conscientiously, but without excessive zeal.
However, the generation of student-soldiers who were the majority in the classes during the first two years of the school ‘s existence found it difficult to accept the schematism of Father Chechelski ‘s lessons, preferring the much more open-minded Father Bozowski, nicknamed Bozower.
There was a significant proportion of rebellious, anti-clerical, sceptical and agnostic students, but very few unbelievers or declared atheists. Some behaved badly during prayers, played truant from religious education classes or had very poor marks in this subject. Some even went so far as to refuse to take the test that was part of the “petit bac” exam (to progress from junior high school to high school), but these were exceptions. Few students were hostile to Catholicism and even fewer were atheists, but there were not many very pious one either.
They were happy to go to mass on Sundays, as it was an opportunity to show their patriotism. In front of the icon of the Black Madonna in Wilno ‘s Ostrobrama chapel, traditional religious festivals were celebrated in a way that was either patriotic and tearful, or folkloric and popular.
