Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said he hopes, "Polish politicians and state officials will do likewise," Polish radio reported.
Poland ’s 45 bishops agreed late Friday, January 11, to request a review of their Communist-era past send the findings to the Vatican, following a new archbishop’s abrupt resignation over disclosures he spied for the old regime.
"The bishops have confirmed the will to carry out a full verification of the truth about ourselves and about the people of the church," said Archbishop Josef Michalik of Przemysl, head of Poland’s conference of Catholic bishops.
COMMUNIST FILES
They will have their Communist-era files reviewed by the Institute of National Remembrance and the Church Historic Commission, established last year, he added.
The move came after a visibly shaken Archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, resigned and confessed to his church members that he was an informant for the Communist secret services. A day later, another church leader stepped down for the same reason.
Yet, questions have been raised as to why it took them over 16 years since the democratic changes began, to come forward.
Himself beaten by Communist agents, Polish priest and author Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski believes he has the answer. He said the Church’s sudden openness came after his threat to expose clergy who collaborated with the former secret services.
BOOK DIFFICULT
"The difficulty with my book is that it reveals the names of priests who currently play an important role in the church, and who also collaborated with the secret service," Isakowicz-Zaleski told reporters.
"They don’t want to admit this and are against openness. There have also been fears of blackmail Russian secret services still have copies of the agents’ files," he added.
Communist-era secret services have been linked to the detention and torture of dissidents, active Christians, and even the killing of a famous priest of the Solidarity movement.
Yet, church historians have said that one in ten clergy cooperated knowingly or unknowingly with Soviet-controlled communist authorities.
LONG IMPACT
Commentators have expressed concerns about the long-term impact of these revelations on the Catholic Church, to which 90 percent of Poland ’s 40-million people belong.
The church is revered for its resistance to the Communists, and Polish-born Pope John Paul II, the former archbishop of Krakow, is credited by many with helping hasten the old regime’s demise in 1989.
On the streets, Polish people have reacted with mixed emotions. "Everything will eventually be good again for the church," said an elderly woman in Krakow. But she was quickly interrupted by another aging woman. "I don’t think everything is going to be fine. It’s is almost unbelievable that the clergy lied to us. They teach us one thing, but do something else, that’s the bitter truth."
The church row has deeply embarrassed President Lech Kaczynski, a devoted Catholic, who had a front row view of last Sunday’s resignation of the archbishop. His twin-brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, wants to take away benefits of ex-Communist secret agents.
Some have called for reconciliation and forgiveness, but for now anger seems to prevail among the Polish faithful, who apparently feel betrayed by those they trusted the most. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos and BosNewsLife Research).
