Flurry of collaboration allegations in Polish archbishop affair

Warsaw - New revelations of alleged collaboration between senior Polishclergy and the former communist-era secret service were published bylocal media on Tuesday, just two days after new archbishop of WarsawStanislaw Wielgus was forced to step down.

Newspaper Dziennik said it was in possession of documents datingfrom the communist era which indicated that the secret police hadpenetrated the highest echelons of the church and even attempted toinfluence the election of a new Primate of Poland.

The secret service documents reportedly feature the codenames of 12bishops who were to inform on the internal workings of the bishops'conference during the late 1970s. It is not, however, known whichbishops the codenames refer to.

The secret service had during this period sought to influence theappointment of a successor to Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, then Primateof Poland, who was elderly and infirm at the time.

The documents showed that the secret service particularly wanted toprevent Cracow Cardinal Karol Wojtyla - who would later become PopeJohn Paul II - from becoming Wyszynski's successor. Cardinal Wojtylawas known for his strong anti-communism stance at the time.

Amid the debate over the secret service past of Wielgus, there wasspeculation that the Polish church's envoy to the Vatican, Papal NuncioJozef Kowalczyk, would be recalled.

He is now thought to have informed the Vatican too late concerningthe allegations against Wielgus and to have hushed up the extent of theevidence, according to several media reports.

Jaroslaw Gowin, the former editor-in-chief of the Catholic magazineZnak, recalled that in the past Kowalczyk had delayed in relayinginformation which was embarrassing to the church.

For example, the late Johannes Paul II some years back had notlearned from Kowalczyk, but rather from an acquaintance, about abuseallegations surrounding the archbishop of Poznan, Gowin said.