Priests Helped Secret Police
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WARSAW, Poland – Up to 6,000 of Poland’s priests are named in government files as contacts of the communist-era secret police, it is claimed.
Many of them were named as collaborators in the interior minister documents, according to the Dziennik newspaper.
Past allegations of collaboration with communist security agencies have proved groundless. But the possibility that the Catholic Church in Poland may be riddled with former collaborators has deflated the euphoric atmosphere in the country following the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, which ended on Sunday, and led to speculation that the Church has sought to cover up an unsavory aspect of its past.
President Kaczynski, who has sought to uphold Catholic values in Poland since his election last year, said he believed it “was no coincidence” that the allegations appeared around the time of the papal visit.
