The speakers slated to appear on Sunday, 13th December, the third day of the congress, included Gustaw Holoubek, Aleksander Gieysztor, Andrzej Tyszka, Ryszard Manteuffel, Stefan Nowak and Klemens Szaniawski. However, the gathering was not held. Art historian Maria Poprzęcka wrote up her account of the events:
When the members arrived at the theatre on that sunny, frosty morning they encountered a locked door, through which uniformed and plainclothes officers could be seen. A handwritten note stated that, under a decision made by the Mayor of the Capital City of Warsaw, the congress had been dissolved. However, Prof. Białostocki, who had had a morning conversation with the Minister of Culture, Józef Tejchma, reiterated his reassurances that the congress had not been dissolved, only that its meeting had been suspended due to Martial Law being imposed in the country.
At this time many of the congress members headed to the All Saints’ Church on Grzybowski Square. A telegram from Pope John Paul II addressed to the congress members was read out during mass, followed by the actor Andrzej Łapicki reading a statement that the writer Kazimierz Dziewanowski and historian Aleksander Gieysztor had written in the sacristy, demanding the release of the arrested intellectuals Klemens Szaniawski, Władyslaw Bartoszewski, Jerzy Jedlicki and Andrzej Szczypiorski. The goals of those gathered in the church strayed from lofty intellectual ideals to practical ways to help those artists and writers who had been victims of a mass internment.
The poet Artur Międzyrzecki later recorded his impressions of this memorable mass in his journal:
This silent scene bathed in the winter light resembles a [Artur] Grottger painting. A still, double row of clergymen in the background, on the right the arrested men's wives facing an altar visible through the door, in the center Andrzej Łapicki lost in thought, to the left [Aleksander] Gieysztor sits on a church pew, on the hand-rest scribbling a statement about the suspension of the congress and the detention of four writers.
Many people in the creative and intellectual spheres had been arrested - artists, writers, journalists - along with members of the Solidarity labour movement. All in all, close to 10,000 people had been victims of the government's internment activities. Creative and trade associations were all eliminated. Those who managed to find a way out of the country, such as writer Janusz Głowacki, literary critic Zdzisław Najder and musician Jacek Kaczmarski found it impossible to return for almost a decade. For those who remained, such as Tadeusz Konwicki, the limits imposed by Martial Law and its impact on the individual and society as a whole were the basis of dark, troubling works of fiction and non-fiction.
Even though the congress was officially suspended, its members continued to operate in new circumstances and with new goals. The Church of St. Anne on Krakowskie Przedmieście became the new meeting place of intellectuals, and their main task was to organise help for internees and their families.