Józefa Maria Hennelowa (1 April 1925 – 22 August 2020) was a Polish publicist, journalist, columnist, Catholic intellectual, and politician. As a journalist, she spent more than seven decades as a reporter and editor at Tygodnik Powszechny, a Catholic weekly newspaper headquartered in Kraków.[1][2] Hennelowa also served in the Sejm, the lower house of the Parliament of Poland, from 1989 until 1993 during the country's transition from communism to democracy.[1][2]
Biography
Józefa Hennelowa was born Józefa Maria Golmont on 1 April 1925 in Vilnius, Poland (modern-day Lithuania), to an ethnic Polish family.[1] Her father was a tailor who created cassocks for Catholic clergy.[1] She originally wanted to be a violinist, rather than a journalist, and became interested in Juliusz Osterwa's life and career while studying in Kraków.[1] During World War II, she joined the women's wing of the Gray Ranks, an underground resistance group opposed to the German occupation, and secretly taught in Vilnius.[2] Following the war and the incorporation of Vilnius into the Soviet Union, Hennelowa moved to the new post-war Poland.[1] She was a graduate of Jagiellonian University in Kraków.[2]
Hennelowa joined the Klub Inteligencji Katolickiej, or Club of Catholic Intelligentsia, in 1956.[2] She also became involved with the Association of Polish Journalists.[2]
Hennelowa first joined the staff of Tygodnik Powszechny, a Catholic weekly published in Kraków, as a proofreader in 1948.[2] She rose over her career to become a reporter, then the newspaper's editor, and secretary of the editorial office.[2] From 1982 until 2012, Hennelowa published a series of regular columns and opinion pieces, including "Widziane z Domu", "Z Domu i not Only", "Votum separatum", and "Na marginesie."[2] She remained deputy editor-in-chief until 2008.[2]
In 1984, Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, a Catholic priest associated with Solidarity, was assassinated by agents from the Ministry of Public Security, the country's secret police.[1] Hennelowa covered the murder trial for Tygodnik Powszechny, though state censors made her work difficult.[1]
In 1989, as Communist rule began to wane, Hennelowa and her husband, Jacek Hennel [pl], joined the Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action (ROAD), a short-lived political party.[1] Hennelowa was elected to the Contract Sejm, the transitional parliament, in 1989 as a ROAD candidate, serving her first term from 1989 to 1991.[1] When ROAD split, she and her faction joined Tadeusz Mazowiecki's new Democratic Union (UD), where she became one the party's founding members in 1990.[1] As a UD member, Hennelowa was re-elected to the Sejm in 1991, where she served until 1993.[1] Hennelowa later became a member of the Freedom Union from 1994 to 1999.[2]
She ran afoul of some in the Polish political right-wing, who falsely accused her of being pro-abortion.[1] Hennelowa, however, was anti-abortion, but she also strongly opposed punishments for women who chose to undergo an abortion.[1]
She was the author of numerous books and publications, many of which focused on Catholicism.[2] She also co-authored a biography of actor Juliusz Osterwa, which she wrote with Jerzy Szaniawski.[2]
Józefa Hennelowa died on 22 August 2020 at the age of 95.[1] Her husband, Jacek Hennel [pl], a physics professor, died in 2014. The couple had three children: Agnieszka (born 1955), Teresa (born 1956), and Franciszek (born 1962).[1]
