The Wielgus affair - analysis

We believe that Prof. Robert Miller's analysis of the events at First Things, with a kind link to us, presents an accurate portrayal of the deep Vatican problems related to the Wielgus Affair, particularly the disastrous process of episcopal nominations, centered in the Congregation for Bishops.

Let us remind our critics that we had not published a single word on Wielgus in December 2006 - because we had trusted the first note issued by the Holy See, according to which the "Holy See ... took into consideration all the circumstances of his life, including those regarding his past" and the "Holy Father... nourishes full trust in Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus and, in full awareness, has entrusted him with the mission of pastor of the Archdiocese of Warsaw".

"All" (Tutti). "Full"(Piena). We should have guessed that the episcopal-picking process, a process which has presented, on average, disastrous results for decades, could not have been trusted this time...

The concluding paragraph of Miller's text is particularly appropriate:

Now, either the Vatican knew about Wielgus' past when it appointed him, as Wielgus says and as the Vatican's statement in December strongly suggests, or else it did not, as Re now maintains. If the former, then the Vatican's investigation of Wielgus prior to the appointment was grossly negligent, failing to discover information that was readily available in Poland. If the latter, as seems much more likely, then the Holy See exercised very poor judgment in making the appointment in the first place and even worse judgment in attempting to ram it through even after the truth about Wielgus became public. It stood by Wielgus while it knew he was lying to the faithful by denying the allegations. Many faithful Catholics looking at this situation will think that our bishops, rather than their critics, are the ones doing the real harm to the Church here.

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Our recess continues for a few more days.
Urgent news may be posted at any time.

Wielgus falls

Archbishop Wielgus has resigned, less than one hour before his official installation. From the Press Office of the Holy See:

The Apostolic Nunciature in Poland informs that His Excellency Abp. Stanisław Wielgus, Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw, on the day in which his installation, beginning his pastoral ministry in the Church of Warsaw, was expected at the Basilica-Cathedral, tendered to His Holiness Benedict XVI his resignation from the canonical office, as established in Can. 401 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Stanisław Wielgus and has named His Emminence Cardinal Józef Glemp, Primate of Poland, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Warsaw until further provision.

Warsaw, January 7, 2007

+ Józef Kowalczyk
Apostolic Nuncio in Poland

_____________________________________

These were our posts on the Wielgus affair in recent days:

8. A Rorate Cæli Editorial: Ecce advenit dominator Dominus

7. Before Wielgus,...

6. Appeal of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw

5. Announcement of the Church Historical Commission

4. Wielgus crisis deepens

3. Other Polish Churchmen "knew how to refuse the offers"

2. Towarzysz Wielgus: Update

1. The Wielgus affair: Communist spy turned Archbishop of Warsaw

We could not have remained silent, for Holy Mother Church and in remembrance of those who were martyred, imprisoned, and persecuted by the Atheistic regime of Communist Poland.

A Rorate Cæli Editorial: Ecce advenit dominator Dominus

Omne munus et iniquitas delebitur,
et fides in sæculum stabit. (Ecclesiasticus xl, 12)

There is not a more deeply Catholic nation in the world today, despite all its problems, than the land of the Poles. Yet, on this weekend of the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, a transfixed laity watches a former collaborator of the Russian Communist invaders take over the see of Cardinal Wyszyński, named by a German Pope. As in so many moments of Polish history, ghosts from the past, as forces from the barbarous East and of the unpredictable West, seem to conspire to destroy the strengthened confidence of a fearless people.

It is hard to define exactly what is the most worrisome aspect of this sordid affair. Is it the new confirmation of an episcopal-picking process gone awfully wrong in the Roman Curia? Is it the lack of proper analysis of documents related to the past of prelates, especially those related to the problematic Communist past in Eastern Europe? Is it the notion that an informer-collaborator of the Communists is given a free pass in Poland, while at the very same time an unknown number of priests and bishops is being imprisoned, tortured, and killed by Communist governments in China and elsewhere?

Or is it perhaps the shamelessness with which Wielgus reacted to the first news of his dark past made public by the Polish press in December? Or is it perhaps the embarrassing lie made evident by a vigorous denial of any wrongdoing in the morning [of January 5, 2007], followed by a public "confession" of collaboration with the Communist regime in the evening of the same day, when overwhelming evidence could not be denied any longer?

As Archbishop Wielgus/"Agent Grey" is installed in Warsaw's Basilica-Cathedral of Saint John this Sunday, all documents related to his past are increasingly under scrutiny. His personal collaboration with the Atheistic regime, a collaboration which was voluntary, will eventually come entirely into the limelight. Other Polish priest-collaborators should be ready, as well as clueless or ill-meaning Vatican authorities: the light of Truth does not destroy the "mass media"; it destroys the phantoms of darkness, wherever they are. The blood of the martyrs and the suffering of the persecuted shall not have been in vain.

Ecce advenit dominator Dominus:
et regnum in manu eius, et potestas, et imperium.

Before Wielgus,...

...came Benedict's and Ranjith's first gift to Catholic Poland: authorization for Communion in the hand, dated April 21, 2006, which John Paul II had never allowed in the country.

CONGREGAZIONE PER IL CULTO DIVINO
E LA DISCIPLINA DEI SACRAMENTI

Prot. 376/06/L

POLONIAE

Instante Excellentissimo Domino Iosepho Michalik, Archiepiscopo Premisliensi Latinorum, Praeside Conferentiae Episcoporum Poloniae, litteris die 6 martii 2006 datis, vigore facultatum huic Congregationi a Summo Pontifice BENEDICTO XVI tributarum, perlibenter concedimus ut in dioecesibus Poloniae usus admittatur consecratum Panem in fidelium manibus ponendi, ad normam Instructionis De modo sanctam Communionem ministrandi et adnexae Epistolae ad Praesides Conferentiarum Episcopalium (cf. AAS 61-1969, 541-547).

Contrariis quibuslibet minime obstantibus.

Ex aedibus Congregationis de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum, die 21 aprilis 2006.

(+ Franciscus Card. Arinze)
Praefectus

(+ Albertus Malcolm Ranjith)
Archiepiscopus a Secretis

These are actions.

Polish Episcopal Conference Appeal of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw

Fakt newspaper: Wielgus, the "Arch-informer"

My sacrifice, o God, is a broken spirit

The Appeal of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw
on the Eve of His Installation

Come, Holy Ghost, the light of consciences
And show us the way

Dear Brother Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters of the whole Warsaw Church community,

Today I stand on the threshold of the Warsaw Cathedral with a heavy dilemma of conscience, which in the recent days has become a trying ordeal, not only for me, but also for you.

The Holy Father, Benedict XVI, sent me to you as the superior of the Warsaw metropolis. I delayed the acceptance of this nomination on account of the state of my health. I also presented my life history to the Holy Father and the appropriate dicasteries of the Holy See, including this part of my past which comprised being entangled in the contacts with the secret services of the past times, operating under the conditions of a totalitarian state, hostile towards the Church. Driven by a desire to do studies important for my academic specialization, I entered this entanglement without proper prudence, courage and determination to break it off. Today I am confessing before you this mistake made by me years ago, as I confessed it to the Holy Father beforehand.

Reports of the political police of that time, coming from the National Remembrance Institute, widely published in the recent days in the media, made known to me by the Historical Commission of the Bishops Conference, speak largely about the things which were expected from me or proposed to me. They do not say, however, to what extent I submitted to these demands. They point to the fact that I strived not to carry out the orders brought forward to me. It is the task of the historians to continue clarifying this. I referred to some of the issues in my statement, handed over to the press on 5th January 2007. I do not know if the documents brought to me by the Historical Commission are the only ones, but today with a full conviction I state that I did not inform against anybody and did not attempt to harm anyone.

However, by the very fact of this entanglement, I harmed the Church.

I have harmed Her again in the recent days when, in the face of a frantic media campaign, I denied the facts of this collaboration. This has jeopardized the credibility of the people of the Church, among them – the Bishops who supported me. I know that for many of you, Brothers and Sisters, this departure from the truth is a fact not less painful than that entanglement from the years gone by.

I have prayed in the recent days, burdensome for me, to the Divine Mercy and have appealed to your belief in this Mercy, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ. I am appealing to it also today, with the words of the Psalmist, expressing the supplication of a penitent:

“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
------
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
------
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Ps 50, NRSV)

Brothers and Sisters.
I come to you, then, with a double feeling. With the joy of being called to perform the Bishop’s ministry in the Capital, being conscious of the tasks involved in the pastoral work of such a great archdiocese, with a great understanding of the spiritual and cultural capacity of Warsaw and its impact on the whole Poland.

But I also come with the awareness of the shadow which falls on my installation, commencing the assumption of the office in the Warsaw archdiocese.

I you accept me, which I request with a contrite heart, I will be a brother among you, willing to unite and not to divide, to pray and make one the people in the Church, the Church of saints and sinners, constituted by all of us.

I regard the experience of the recent days, hard both for you and for me, as an obligation to make an effort in my ministry in the Warsaw Church to extend particular kindness towards the people who are lost, put off by the Church institutions and embittered by her human shortcomings.

I declare before the Holy Father, with a complete humility, that I will submit to his every decision.

I ask Our Lady for her attention and all the faithful for their prayers for the light of the Holy Spirit for the time of a difficult beginning of my pastoral ministry among you.

Warsaw, 6th January 2007

+ Stanislaw Wielgus
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw

Polish Episcopal Conference Announcement of the Church Historical Commission

The Church Historical Commission, on the request of Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, presented to the President of the Commission, prof. Wojciech Laczkowski on 2nd January 2007, became acquainted with the materials made available by the National Remembrance Institute (IPN), concerning his person. These records are included in a file called “Jacket nr 7207” (the documents were produced by the VIII (XI) Section of the Department I [one] in the Home Office).

The Commission analysed the materials submitted to them, guided by premises stated in the document from 12th December 2006, entitled “Work goals and regulations of the Church Historical Commission”. In this study (pt. II.3) the Commission decided that the following premises should be included while making a moral judgment about the collaboration with secret services of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL):
1) a written or oral declaration of consent to conscious and secret collaboration (eg. hidden from one’s superiors);
2) active collaboration by the person who gave such declaration;
3) consciously harming lay people, clergy and Church institutions;
4) the intentions of the actions.
The Commission found out that there are numerous and substantial documents confirming the readiness for conscious and secret collaboration with the PRL secret services on the part of Fr. Stanislaw Wielgus. It also appears from the documents that this collaboration was actually taken up.

Collaboration with SB (secret service) was prohibited by the Episcopate. In the IPN documentation there are preserved opinions of the PRL intelligence officers, referring to SB materials, which indirectly show that Fr. Stanislaw Wielgus’s activities in the Lublin milieu could do damage to various people from the Church circles. As concerns the collaboration with PRL intelligence, the analysis of documents does not allow to unambiguously state that Fr. Stanislaw Wielgus harmed anyone.

The Commission does not exclude that in future new materials concerning the issue under question may appear, which – if need be – will be subject to analysis and assessment.

The Commission submitted their report to Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, with a request to express his position. In response Archbishop denied most statements contained in the PRL security services materials, which were made available to the commission by IPN. He stated, among other things, that he has never done anybody any harm, either by deed or word.

Warsaw, 5th January 2007

Prof. Wojciech Laczkowski
The President of the Church Historical Commission

Fr. Prof. Jerzy Myszor
Vice-President

Prof. Zbigniew Cieslak
Fr. Dr. Bogdan Stanaszek
Fr. Prof. Jacek Urban
Members

Wielgus crisis deepens

New information revealed by a recent dispatch of the AFP (Agence France-Presse - via Le Forum Catholique):

-(1) According to the documents made public yesterday, the informer-collaborator "Grey"/"Adam" (Father Stanislaw Wielgus) went so far in his parallel career as to undergo a "special training for agents" of the Communist Polish Intelligence Services (the SB);

-(2) According to the authorities of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which keeps all files related to the Communist-era intelligence activities, they were never asked for any files on Bishop Wielgus by any Vatican authority.

The last information certainly indicates that the trust put on the former informer-collaborator was based solely on his personal disclosures (and on eventual internal ecclesiastical material), but not on the actual documents, which were never even requested prior to January 2007.

The official statement is available at the IPN website:

The IPN declares, that the Apostolic See have not turned to the IPN for making available files concerning Archbishop Stanisław Wielgus, neither has done it the Primate Józef Glemp, or any of his representatives.

The Church Historical Commission, established by the Episcopacy, started its research work on the basis of the IPN materials on the 2. January, 2007.

Dorota Koczwańska-Kalita
Deputy Director of the Office of the President of the IPN

Other Polish Churchmen "knew how to refuse the offers"

Several pages of some of the publicly-available SB (Communist Polish Intelligence Services) files regarding informer-collaborator "Grey" (Wielgus) are available in Zip files here: File 1, File 2, File 3, in a total of 69 pages.

From Radio Polonia (with minor corrections; also in audio file):

Case proven, say historians

Documents have been found proving allegations that Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus was a knowing collaborator of the communist era secret services.

Agnieszka Bielawska reports

06.01.07

The allegations of the Archbishops’ cooperation appeared some two weeks ago in the Gazeta Polska weekly. Wielgus has called for the examination of his files in order to clear his name, but after two commissions began studying the documents more accusations followed in the media. The special commission set up by Poland’s ombudsman Janusz Kochanowski issued a statement that the documents leave no doubts that Archbishop Wielgus was an informant.

Andrzej Paczkowski a member of the commission.

"There is no field for discussion here. We can speak about motives, effects but the fact is there. This person was a conscious collaborator, but the documents do not state what this person really did. There are instructions, orders but no reports on the accomplished deeds."

Stanislaw Wielgus is to be sworn in as archbishop of the Warsaw diocese on Sunday but opinions prevail that he should resign and explain the proven facts. Tomasz Sakiewicz editor in chief of the Gazeta Polska, the first to raise the matter, says that such an explanation could avoid a serious crisis in the Polish church:

"It's never too late because I believe that Wielgus is responsible for the church and he knows that he caused the crisis. There was never such a crisis in the Polish church and many Polish Catholics believe that he should resign to avoid the crisis....”

The Polish church and the Vatican stand by Archbishop Wielgus, but the Polish churchgoers begin to have doubts. The accusations evoke unease among the faithful for whom the Church was a model of morality and the pillar of opposition to the communists. Tomasz Sakiewicz says that this situation, unless cleared up will undermine the credibility of the Church.

"Polish people stand by the church and believe their priests, but now everybody knows he is lying - it is even worse than his cooperation with the communists."

Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus is not the first high-ranking cleric to be accused of working with the communist era secret services. The Polish Church however was loath to open an internal probe, but research had been started by Father Tadeusz Issakowicz Zaleski.

He devoted a year studying the National remembrance Institute files which showed that only some 10% of the Polish clergy agreed to cooperate with the communists. Father Zaleski underlines that ... the former metropolitan of Krakow cardinal Franciszek Macharski or Archbishop Ziemba knew how to refuse the offers

"I think their examples show that the Polish priests could stand for their Church. They did not mind their church career but had other values to defend."

Father Zaleski is publishing a book about the invigilation of the Polish clergy by the communist secret services and devotes much space in it to those who had the courage to refuse the secret services. He is convinced that the case of Archbishop Wielgus has to be very carefully examined since now the archbishop has lost his credibility and may undermine the role he is to play as the Archbishop of the Warsaw diocese.

From this Saturday's edition of Il Giornale (Italian):

"Well - says Father Adam Boniecki, [who was] for eleven years the director of the Polish edition of L'Osservatore Romano - , the Vatican declaration of December 21 seemed strange" and maybe the Pope chose Wielgus without "a complete knowledge of the case. One fact is certain - adds Father Boniecki -, to be an archbishop of Warsaw with this introduction is a horrible thing" and Wielgus could find a way out by himself: "Asking, after a certain time, to be relieved of this charge."

Towarzysz Wielgus: Update

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Earlier post here.

Update (2130 GMT): Radio Polonia.

‘I did harm to the Church’ says Wielgus


Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus has made an apology in a special statement to the Warsaw diocese, admitting, in effect, that he has lied in recent days over allegations of collaboration with the communist era secret services.

The Archbishop said that: “By the fact that I was involved [with the communist services] I did great harm to the Church and I harmed it again recently in the face of a heated media campaign when I denied the fact of this collaboration’.

The apology and admission comes just two days before Stanislaw Wielgus is scheduled to be formally sworn in as Archbishop of Warsaw.

In a statement given earlier in the day, however, he said he had talked to the communist secret police in order to be allowed to travel abroad but denied being a secret informer.

He said he had not carried out any spy missions and had not done any harm to anyone with his words or actions.

The Church commission, which studied secret police documents, acknowledged that the archbishop had spied for the communist-era secret services, saying that there was sufficient evidence to confirm that he was a willing informer.

_________________________________

Editorial note:

Are we supposed to believe this now, or are we suposed to wait for another apology? We must be clear: Archbishop Wielgus was a liar in the past, he has been a liar in the past few days, and he is a shame to Holy Mother Church and to the Polish Motherland he betrayed in the past and has betrayed even today.

Shame on him!

_________________________________

Father Jerzy Popiełuszko (1947-1984), Polish martyr under Communism

The Wielgus affair: Communist spy turned Archbishop of Warsaw

The fallout from the appointment of a former source of the secret services of the Polish Communist government as Archbishop of Warsaw continues to rock Poland and the Vatican two days before his installation.

One of the documents unearthed by Rzeczpospolita

From Andrea Tornielli (Rome), in Il Giornale's Friday edition (Italian):

The position of the new archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, 67 years old, appointed last December 6 as successor to Cardinal Glemp and who will enter the diocese in two days worsens: new documents from the archives seem to demonstrate, as the authoritative Polish daily Rzeczpospolita affirms, that the prelate was "a secret agent of the Communist services for twenty years".

...

Now, thanks to a microfilm, new and graver elements emerge. "I, Grey-Stanislaw [one of the supposed pseudonyms used by Wielgus] agree to collaborate with the secret services of the Polish Popular Republic during my time abroad. The collaboration will be based in an offer of intelligence services from Federal Germany and other hostile nations, according to the instructions of the Center for Intelligence Services. The services shall make available all means and eventual legal help for the development of the aforementioned activities." This is the text of the document reported in unabridged format by Rzeczpospolita.

...

It is probable that the circumstances were not [known to the Vatican] in all their consistency and extent. Anonymous sources from the Polish Church do not hide the embarrassment which this situation is causing, a few hours before the installation of the new archbishop: "It is a grave affair, a sad and delicate story, it is not a pleasant thing."

From The Guardian:

"The new archbishop of Warsaw was a secret and conscious collaborator with the SB [Security Service] for more than 20 years. Documents confirm this," the well-respected Rzeczpospolita newspaper wrote yesterday of Mr Wielgus, who was chosen by Pope Benedict XVI last month to fill one of the most important roles in the Polish church.

...

Mr Wielgus is accused of spying for the SB from 1967, when he was a philosophy student at Lublin University, until the collapse of communist rule in 1989, and of operating under at least three pseudonyms: "Adam", "Grey" and "Adam Wysocki".

Rzeczpospolita claimed to have unearthed Mr Wielgus' signed agreement to work for the SB, along with documents showing that he gathered information about church matters and students whom he taught, and even papers suggesting that he received "special training" for agents and was given a grant to study in Germany as reward for his collaboration.

More from Rzeczpospolita (in Polish).