The late Pope John Paul II has been accused of covering up child abuse carried out by paedophile priests during his time as archbishop of Krakow, before his move to Rome as pontiff in 1978.
A new book due this week, as well as a lengthy report on Tuesday night by Polish broadcaster TVN, cite cases in which cardinal Karol Wojtyla reportedly transferred abusing priests – without informing the receiving parish or diocese about the priest’s record.
TVN investigative reporter Michal Gutowski and Dutch-based journalist Ekke Overbeek, working independently of each other, say they have spoken to dozens of victims of Polish paedophile priests, their families and former church diocese employees.
The claims have rocked the homeland of Wojtyla, who was pope for 27 years from 1978 until his death in 2005. Revered by many Polish people as much in death as in life, senior Polish bishops have dismissed the claims as attempts to “undermine” the late pope because his teachings “do not correspond to contemporary ideologies promoting hedonism”.
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Other have flagged the dangers of relying on reports of abuse filed by Poland’s secret police, a long-term opponent of the Catholic Church.
One case in the TVN report involves a priest who sexually assaulted boys in the 1970s in the Krakow archdiocese, then headed by the future pope. Transferring him to to Austria, Wojtyla wrote a letter of recommendation to cardinal Franz König of Vienna, reportedly making no mention of the priest’s conviction for the rape of minors.
In another case, an unnamed source tells TVN that in 1973 he reported one paedophile priest personally to Wojtyla, who “asked that it not be reported anywhere – that he would deal with it”.
In his book Maxima Culpa, Overbeek tells of a priest in a parish near the border with Czechoslovakia who, during catechism class, abused girls while he covered them with his jacket. After parental complaints, his superior took the case to Wojtyla, who suspended the priest.
Released after serving one year of a two-year prison sentence, the priest received a letter from the cardinal in September 1970, saying: “I consider it advisable for you to gradually return to priestly work.”
Four years later, the cardinal received letters accusing the priest of “indecent behaviour” towards girls in the town of Zakopane.
Even before publication, Overbeek’s book has proven highly controversial in Poland. A report by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper challenges links the Dutch journalist makes between the later pope and abusing priests in neighbouring dioceses. In the cases under his direct control, they wrote that “Cardinal Wojtyla made immediate decisions in accordance with canon law ... and while he gradually lifted canonical penalties and showed great mercy, he remained ever vigilant”.
Both the new book and television report allege that cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, a former archbishop of Krakow and Wojtyla mentor, sexually abused candidates for the priesthood.
Sapieha was a senior church leader during the Nazi occupation and ordained Wojtyla in 1946. Neither report has produced evidence that Sapieha abused Wojtyla during his training for the priesthood.
“However the figure of Sapieha may prove crucial,” writes Overbeek, “in understanding why the later Pope John Paul II remained silent and averted his gaze when he was informed of sexual abuse by priests.”
The latest claims follow a surge in abuse reports in the Polish church in recent years and Vatican sanctions of a series of bishops. A Polish church office for protection of children told a Catholic newspaper there was “a lack of awareness of the harm caused by sexual abuse” at the time of the allegations “in the church and society”.
