Polish prelate quits over spying revelations

POLAND:Poland's Catholic Church was forced into an unprecedented retreat under public pressure yesterday when the new archbishop of Warsaw resigned at his own inaugural Mass.

Angry cries of protest greeted Bishop Stanislaw Wielgus's tearful resignation, two days after he was consecrated into the position, after he admitted that his contacts with the communist secret service had been deeper than he first admitted.

"In accordance with canon law I submit to your holiness my resignation . . ." read a wan-faced Dr Wielgus, immediately interrupted by audible gasps and shouts from the back of the cathedral of "No!" and "Disgrace!"

The visibly shaking bishop blinked back tears then closed his exhausted eyes as the roar grew louder.

In the front pew, President Lech Kaczynski turned to his wife in shock, then joined in applause of support.

The cries grew louder as the news spread to the rain-soaked crowd outside the St John's cathedral. Women began weeping and scuffles broke out between two rival factions: ultra-conservatives calling for Dr Wielgus to stand firm and liberals demanding his resignation.

Soon the scuffles turned to fist fights as the tension of the last days was released in an outpouring of emotion and anger. Several journalists were attacked by umbrella-wielding women and a cameraman was punched in the face, all accused of "selling themselves for silver coins" and of being "servants of the masons".

"They believe communist bits of paper and not the servant of God," shouted one flush-faced man. "Jesus forgave St Peter," said another. An old woman spat: "It's all the Jews' doing."

After denying the initial rumours of his collaboration before Christmas, the bishop was forced to change his story last week after 68 pages of his file were published on the internet.

Dr Wielgus admitted meeting secret service (SB) officials to get passports for foreign research trips but denied reporting on church affairs or on the clergy.

Then two independent investigations - one conducted by the church - found that the bishop had been a willing and conscious SB collaborator over 20 years.

Vatican sources told the Polish news agency PAP yesterday that an "irritated" Pope Benedict had learned though the media the full extent of Dr Wielgus's SB contacts and suggested he resign.

Yesterday, two days after reiterating its "full confidence" in the bishop, Pope Benedict accepted the resignation, a Vatican spokesman said, stating that Dr Wielgus had "gravely compromised his authority".

The Pope has asked the outgoing archbishop, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the Polish primate, to stay on until a replacement can be found.

Cardinal Glemp came in for heavy criticism from his clerical colleagues and the media yesterday for his fiery sermon defending Dr Wielgus and his attack on "trial by media".

"This was no court of law; there were no witnesses. Wielgus was forced by harassment, shouts and threats to become a collaborator," he declaimed to huge applause.

Afterwards, a leading Polish bishop called the sermon "unseemly", suggesting it openly contradicted the Vatican position and risked splitting the church.

Tomasz Terlikowski, religious affairs journalist with Rzeczpospolitanewspaper, said there were parallels between the Polish church's defensive response to the collaboration revelations and the Irish clergy's response to the child abuse scandal.

"The church just wants to go on as before, regardless if that leads to a loss of moral authority," he said. "All that counts is protecting a colleague."

After Mass, a group of 100 conservative Catholics organised by the fundamentalist station Radio Maryja marched to the archbishop's house carrying banners and chanting "We want Wielgus!" and "Stay with us!", a call last used during visits of the late Pope John Paul.

They condemned the affair as "media lies", a charge rejected by Polish journalists.

"Bishop Wielgus did not really resign because he was attacked by the media," said Zbigniew Nosowski, editor of the Christian monthly Wiez. "He resigned because he is a victim of his own mistakes and weaknesses which he didn't manage to admit."

It is estimated that one in 10 Catholic priests in Poland had contacts of some kind with the secret service. In the last year, barely a month has passed without the exposure of another clergyman.

Yesterday Polish news magazine Wprostnamed Bishop Jerzy Dabrowski, who died in 1991, as another SB collaborator.

Ordinary Polish priests say privately that they are shaken by the revelations and do not see how the church can avoid a full examination into its past. Bishops have opposed such an investigation until now.

Critics say the continual drip of collaboration revelations in recent months has already begun to soil the traditional image of the Catholic Church as the guardian of Polish national identity and a bulwark of resistance in the communist era.

Archbishop Wielgus: the facts

A professor of philosophy, Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus was the rector of Lublin's Catholic University before becoming bishop in the central Polish town of Plock in 1998. Like many academics during the communist era, he was allowed to travel abroad and was interviewed by the secret services before and after travelling.

The allegations against him were made by right-leaning newspaper Gazeta Polska. It cited documents from the communist era, now publicly available, that showed he worked with the secret services for more than 20 years from the late 1960s.

A church commission formed on Archbishop Wielgus's request said on Friday there were "many documents which confirm Wielgus's willingness to . . . co-operate".

Poland is struggling to come to terms with its communist past and the church's role during that period. A book to be published later this year by communist-era opposition activist Fr Isakiewicz- Zaleski is expected to reveal names of priests who co-operated.

Poland's ruling conservatives have put rooting out communist pasts of public figures at the top of their agenda. - (Reuters)