Stanisław Wielgus

Stanisław poop Wielgus (born April 23 1939) is the Archbishop Emeritus of Warsaw. He was appointed to the position of Archbishop by Pope Benedict XVI on December 6 2006. Having assumed the office on January 5 2007, he resigned from the position on January 7 2007, less than an hour before his public installation ceremony, because of a scandal connected with his cooperation with the Służba Bezpieczeństwa - the Polish Communist Secret Police.

Biography

Born Stanisław Wielgus in 1939 in Wierzchowiska in today's Lublin Region. Being an expert in Polish philosophy and medieval philosophy, he spent thirty years teaching in the faculty of philosophy of the Catholic University of Lublin. Father Wielgus served three terms as rector of that university. He was appointed Bishop of Płock in 1999 by Pope John Paul II, being ordained on August of that year. He taught at the University of Munich, from 1973 to 1975 and again in 1978, where the then-Professor Joseph Ratzinger was teaching as an associate. He serves as a member and consultant on the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, and is a member of the Humanities section of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He served as the bishop of Płock until 2006, when was appointed to the position of Archbishop by Pope Benedict XVI on 6 December 2006.

Father Wielgus took the "oath of fidelity" on January 5 2007, and, in the evening of January 6 2007, he took canonical possession of the Archdiocese. The "installation" scheduled for January 7 2007 was to take canonical possession of the Cathedral, which is also a Basilica. However, he resigned from the position on January 7 2007, in the midst of a scandal connected to his cooperation with the Polish Communist Secret Police.

Cooperation with the Communist Secret Police

On December 20 2006, journalists found documents from the communist archives, according to which Archbishop Wielgus collaborated — or at least conversed with — the communist Secret Police during communist rule in Poland. The Polish human rights ombudsman, Janusz Kochanowski, said on January 4 2007, that there was evidence in the secret police archives that Archbishop Wielgus knowingly cooperated with Communist authorities. The Rzeczpospolita newspaper published some of the documents, which appeared to show that the Archbishop interacted with police agents more than 50 times in one five-year period. Even Poland’s Catholic Church Historical Commission, which ran its own investigation, issued a statement saying that "there are numerous, substantial documents confirming Stanisław Wielgus’s willingness to engage in a conscious and secret cooperation with the Communist security forces".

Faced with the allegations, Archbishop Wielgus acknowledged that in 1978, he signed a cooperation statement with the secret police. This was done under pressure, he said, from a "brutal intelligence officer" — when he was seeking permission to travel to Munich, Germany. He insisted that the only cooperation he ever gave was to inform the secret police of his agenda during foreign academic meetings and to promise not to take part in anti-Communist activities. However, he denied further allegations as an informer. "The personality ascribed to me in the intelligence service documents is so far from the truth that I would never have recognized myself," Archbishop Wielgus wrote in a statement issued on January 4 2007.

The documents published by the Rzeczpospolita and other newspapers, however, suggested a much greater role for Father Wielgus, and they indicated that he was recruited much earlier than he has admitted. The documents indicated that Wielgus was recruited by the Secret Police back in 1967, when he was a philosophy student at the Catholic University of Lublin. They cited other documents in which the Secret Police claimed that Father Wielgus gave them information about activities at the university, where he later taught medieval philosophy. According to the newspapers, some of the documents refer to Father Wielgus by the code names Grey, Adam and Adam Wysocki. They said he received training from the Secret Police and was rewarded for his collaboration with a grant to study in Munich, and even that at one point he attempted to infiltrate Radio Free Europe." Wielgus has asked the Polish bishops' conference to examine the files pertaining to him.

The Vatican, meanwhile, continued to support Wielgus: "The Holy See, in deciding the nomination of the new archbishop of Warsaw, took into consideration all the circumstances of his life, including those regarding his past .... (Pope Benedict XVI) has every confidence in Monsignor Stanisław Wielgus and in full conscience entrusted him the mission of pastor of the archdiocese of Warsaw."

Resignation

Father Wielgus assumed his new duties as Archbishop on January 5 2007, and was due to be officially installed on January 7 2007, at a ceremony in St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw. However, less than an hour before the cermony, he resigned. The news came unexpectedly in the morning, in the midst of preparations for the archbishop's inauguration ceremony. The decision was reportedly a result of negotiations at the Vatican level. According to some sources, Pope Benedict personally suggested that Archbishop Wielgus step down after finding out that he did not reveal the whole truth in his recent statements to the Vatican about his past collaboration with Poland's communist regime. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re, head of the Congregation for Bishops, confirmed for Italian daily the Corriere della Sera that Pope Benedict himself decided on the dismissal of the Archbishop. Unofficial sources add that the decision followed a telephone conversation with Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

Instead of the "inauguration" ceremony, a thanksgiving Mass for the work of the previous archbishop metropolitan of Warsaw, Józef Glemp, was held at St. John's Cathedral. President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria attended the service. With a stony expression and a flat voice, Archbishop Wielgus read out a brief statement from a piece of paper, for the stunned congregation. It was, he told the gathering of bishops, priests, members of various Catholic orders and ordinary church-goers, after "deep reflection and consideration of [his] personal situation" that he had decided to put his office "in the hands of the Holy Father."

Hundreds of supporters and opponents of Warsaw's new archbishop, gathered in and in front of the Cathedral for the "inauguration" Mass, many apparently still unaware that Wielgus had resigned. Those who wished the archbishop to step down carried banners saying "non possumus" ("we cannot allow that"). Others, who came to support archbishop Wielgus, interrupted his speech at the beginning of the Mass, shouting "stay with us" etc. After the Mass, the crowds went out on the streets and marched to the Warsaw residence of archbishop Wielgus. It was reported that a reporter for Gazeta Polska, the weekly which first wrote on the scandal, was physically attacked by a crowd of the archbishop's supporters.

Like most Archbishops of Warsaw, Archbishop Wielgus was — before his resignation — widely expected to be created Cardinal after the death of his predecessor. The Apostolic Nunciature in Poland said in a statement Pope Benedict had accepted Bishop Stanislaw Wielgus's resignation. Wielgus was appointed by the Pope on December 6 2006 to succeed anti-communist Cardinal Jozef Glemp. According to the statement, Cardinal Glemp will retain the position of apostolic administrator until a replacement is chosen.

Aftermath

The debate over Wielgus' past has plunged the Catholic Church in Poland into a major crisis. Archbishop Wielgus was a successor to the legendary Archbishop Stefan Wyszynski, who was jailed for years during the rule of late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. He would serve in the city whose clergy are symbolized by Father Jerzy Popieluszko, who was murdered by the communist Secret Police, which Wielgus colaborated with. For those priests and Catholic intellectuals who were demanding a robust stance by the Church towards its weaknesses and failures during the communist era, having such a bishop as the head of one of the most important archdiocese was unimaginable.

Wielgus claims to have briefed the Pope about his past, but what is in question is whether it was the full account. Two separate commissions - one from the church, the other from the government - had determined that there was "no doubt" about the proof of Wielgus' contacts with the Secret Police. Yet, according to Polish lawyers, the Vatican has so far not yet seen the Secret Police dossiers on Wielgus.

The situation brings some political implications to President Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the prime minister. These two practicing Catholics have been pledging for a comprehensive final reckoning with the communist past in Poland. Although there have been revealed connections with the Secret Police in the past, the Church had till now always presented itself as a bastion against communism. Now, the Catholic community faces demands also to deal with questions of guilt and betrayal within its own ranks.

External links

• Warsaw archbishop resigns amid scandal - Yahoo
• Arcybiskup Wielgus złożył dymisję - Dziennik
• Profile: Stanislaw Wielgus - BBC News

• Newly Appointed Archbishop of Warsaw Resigns from National Public Radio