Pope John Paul II’s handling of sex abuse needs “further research”, says Poland’s Catholic church

Further research is needed into John Paul II’s response to cases of child sex abuse in order to establish a “fair assessment”, Poland’s Catholic episcopate has announced in the wake of a new report alleging that the future pope showed neglect in dealing with the issue while serving as the archbishop of Kraków.

One Polish archbishop, however, has offered a sterner response, describing the new claims as an attempt by “gender ideologists, supporters of abortion” and other enemies of the church to “destroy” John Paul II’s legacy. Poland’s prime minister has also come to the late pope’s defence.

On Tuesday, private broadcaster TVN aired an investigation into John Paul II’s handling of three priests accused of sexual abuse when he was Archbishop Karol Wojtyła of Kraków. It indicated that, despite being aware of their behaviour, he allowed them to continue working in the church.

The investigation has prompted renewed debate in Poland over the legacy of the former pope – a national hero not only for his spiritual leadership but also for the role he played in inspiring opposition to the communist regime – with regard to historical abuse cases in the Catholic church.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Polish Episcopal Conference (KEP), which is the central organ of the Catholic church in Poland, noted that the cases of two of the priests investigated by TVN – Eugeniusz Surgent and Józef Loranc – had already been reported on by other journalists in recent months.

In the case of Surgent, the KEP issued a public appeal last November for the priest’s victims to come forward so that the church could provide them with any support they required.

The third case examined by TVN was that of Bolesław Saduś, a close associate of Wojtyła whom the future pope reportedly sent to work in Austria after it became “impossible to hide” his abuse in Poland.

In its statement, the KEP noted that TVN’s evidence came not from prosecutorial or court files, but from the archives of the communist-era security services. That makes it “impossible to determine” their reliability.

Since TVN broadcast its report, a number of commentators have noted that many of its findings were based on security service files from a time when Poland’s communist regime was keen to discredit the church and Wojtyła himself. This, they suggest, makes TVN’s findings untrustworthy

At the end of its statement, the KEP concluded that “further archival research is required” in order to establish a “fair assessment of the decisions and actions…of Karol Wojtyła”.

A much more confrontational tone was struck by one of the Polish church’s most outspoken figures, Marek Jędraszewski, the current archbishop of Kraków.

During a homily delivered yesterday, Jędraszewski declared that there is “an operation to destroy his [John Paul II’s] memory” because he is an “enemy for the preachers of gender ideology, supporters of abortion and euthanasia”. For them, “his voice is one of dissent, so it must be destroyed, his authority must be weakened”.

“We must fight,” continued the archbishop, “not by violence [but] with prayer. We must constantly strengthen the solidarity of Polish hearts. Because this is about Poland. This is about us. This is about faithfulness to all those who shed blood for our homeland in our distant and recent past.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki took to social media to defend the former pope, saying in a Facebook video that attacks against John Paull II have “gone beyond civilised debate and beyond civil dispute”.

Referring to calls by some commentators for monuments to John Paul II to be removed, Morawiecki said he rejected these “demands and threats” directed “at the most eminent of our compatriots, our brother, the conqueror of totalitarian communism, our guide, Saint John Paul II”.

Separately, the spokesman for Morawiecki’s Law and justice (PiS) party, which enjoys close relations with the church, announced today that during the current sitting of parliament a resolution would be adopted “in defence of the good name of Saint John Paul II”.

Main image credit: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.