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February
5, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 3Oakland,
CA
Officials examine
clergy collaboration
with communists
 |
| Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus waves as he arrives
at the cathedral in Plock, Poland, Dec. 31. A week later he resigned
his new post as archbishop of Warsaw after a Church commission found
evidence that he cooperated with Poland’s communist-era secret
police. CNS PHOTO/TOMASZ PACZOS/REUTERS |
WARSAW,
Poland (CNS) -- Many Eastern European Church officials said they lack
procedures for handling claims of clergy collaborating with communist
secret police nearly 20 years after the collapse of communism.
Father Laszlo Nemeth, secretary-general of the Hungarian bishops’
conference, told Catholic News Service that although Hungarian bishops
had debated the issue in the early 1990s, the communist police archives
are still closed to researchers.
“We’d like to see government legislation on the use and interpretation
of communist regime archives, but our MPs (members of Parliament) appear
unready to pass a law which would allow objective research in this complex
area,” Father Nemeth said Jan. 25.
“Some files and documents were destroyed and some fabricated. If
we can’t establish the truth from them, how can we properly screen
our clergy?”
The priest said most bishops consecrated under communist rule had now
retired, and younger Catholic clergy were uninvolved.
“Everyone who achieved something, knew languages or reached a certain
level of importance in society was controlled and asked to collaborate,”
he said.
“Many of those who made compromises, seeing this as a lesser evil,
later achieved wonderful things for the Church. So there’s an uneasiness
about dragging this all out into the open again.”
In Romania, Father Francisc Dubos, a spokesman for the Bucharest Archdiocese,
said Romanian President Traian Basescu had urged the opening of secret
police files on Orthodox and Catholic clergy after the justice minister
called for clergy guilty of working with communists to be named publicly
last year.
Romanian Church leaders believed the demands were “politically motivated”
and they had not adopted an “official position,” Father Dubos
told CNS.
“Although diocesan bishops have talked privately about how to deal
with collaboration claims, there are no Church statements or guidelines,”
he said.
“Some priests were clearly involved with the authorities, so a case
like Poland’s could occur here too,” he added, referring to
the recent resignation of Warsaw Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus -- and subsequently
other Polish clergy -- for working with the communist secret police.
Since Archbishop Wielgus’ resignation, dozens of Polish dioceses
have set up individual or joint commissions to investigate communist-era
surveillance of local priests, in line with recommendations announced
at an emergency Polish bishops’ conference meeting Jan. 12.
The bishops also announced the creation of a five-member central Church
Historical Commission that would be available if requested to check the
files of bishops.
The diocesan commissions are composed almost entirely of priests and bishops.
In the Warsaw archdiocesan commission, only one of the 12 commission members
is a layperson.
Father Dubos said he doubted such claims of clergy collaboration would
have “the same impact” in Romania as in Poland because of
the Catholic Church’s minority status.
“Politically motivated campaigns like this won’t radically
affect public trust,” he added. “Nor will media revelations
generate a hysterical reaction.”
Many bishops’ conferences around Eastern Europe have tried to identify
clergy who worked with the communist secret police.
The Lithuanian bishops’ conference urged guilty priests to come
forward in 2000. And in Slovakia last year, several dozen Catholic priests
were named on lists of alleged communist agents by government officials.
The Slovakian bishops’ conference asked forgiveness from those harmed
by clergy collaborators in a March 2005 statement. The bishops said the
Church would require an “explanation and atonement” from those
involved.
In the Czech Republic, three Church leaders, including the president of
the bishops’ conference, Archbishop Jan Graubner of Olomouc, were
named by newspapers in December as former secret police informers. This
fueled media claims that dozens of Catholic clergy could face exposure
if more archival research was available.
