Polish archbishop resigns post amidst pressure over spying past

1/7/2007
Catholic Online

WARSAW, Poland (Catholic Online) – The newly-appointed archbishop of Warsaw resigned Jan. 7 just before he was due to be installed in his post and two days after admitting he spied for Poland's former communist regime.

The revelation that led to mounting pressure on Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus to resign is a major embarrassment for the Vatican and the Polish Catholic Church.

Archbishop Wielgus read his resignation to those gathered at a special morning Mass in Warsaw Cathedral here that replaced a formal ceremony that was to have sworn him in.

"In accordance with (Canon law) I submit to your holiness my resignation as the metropolitan archbishop of Warsaw," said Archbishop Wielgus, who on Jan. 5 backed down from repeated denials that he collaborated with the secret services during the communist era.

The Vatican's apostolic nunciature in Poland said in a statement released by the Vatican said that the archbishop was asked to resign and that Pope Benedict XVI accepted it.
The mission said that the pope had asked Cardinal Jozef Glemp, Archbishop Wielgus' predecessor, to return as head of the Warsaw church temporarily until its future direction was determined, the brief statement added.

An official statement from the nunciature said that Archbishop Wieglus “on the day in which his installation in the basilica cathedral was to take place … submitted his resignation to his holiness Benedict XVI.” The pope, “in accordance with canon 401 no. 2 of the Code of Canon Law,” accepted the resignation and appointed Cardinal Glemp to the post “until new provisions are made.”

Canon 401 no. 2 reads, “A diocesan bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause is earnestly requested to present his resignation from office.”

“Archbishop Wielgus’s past behavior during the years of the communist regime in Poland greatly compromised his ability to bear authority, especially in regards to the Christian faithful,” Father Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio Jan. 7. He acknowledged that the archbishop’s “humble and moving request for forgiveness” and his resignation will have a therapeutic effect on the healing of the Polish church.

"The wave of attacks on the Catholic Church in Poland, rather than a sincere quest for transparency and truth, has many aspects of a strange alliance between the persecutors of the past and their adversaries and a vendetta on their part," Father Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio.

The 67-year-old Archbishop Wielgus was named by the pope on Dec. 6 to succeed the retiring Cardinal Glemp, who remains the primate of the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Just before Christmas, the Vatican released a statement insisting the pope had been fully briefed on Archbishop Wielgus' past and supported his appointment.

While the Catholic Church was a key and early supporter of the pro-democracy Solidarity movement during the 1980s, historians have suggested that a significant portion of the Polish clergy – up to an estimated 15 percent – may have been involved in collaborating with the Soviet-backed regime and its secret police.

Soon after the appointment of Archbishop Wielgus, Polish media reported that he had informed on fellow clerics for about 20 years from the late 1960s.

In the Jan. 5 statement, Archbishop Wielgus said that while he had had contacts with communist security agents, he denied reporting "on anyone nor deliberately try to hurt anyone."

He called “a falsification” the “various bad intentions and attitudes about the church” attribution to him.