Book identifies 30 Polish bishops and priests as secret police informants
WARSAW, Poland -- A book released Monday has dredged up more painful allegations from Poland's Communist era, naming some 30 Roman Catholic priests, including several bishops, as registered informants with the secret police.
The author, the Rev. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, was twice brutally beaten by the secret police and is one of the leaders of a drive to expose clergy who supplied information to authorities. The church, he says, must confess and repent to heal wounds.
"The church's avoiding of the problem could lead to irreversible harm," he wrote in an introduction. "Above all, it will cast a shadow on those clergy (and they were the vast majority) who never cooperated with the secret police."
Publication of the book -- titled "Priests In The Face Of The Security Services" -- coincides with a surge of interest in the issue following the surprise resignation in January of Warsaw Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus.
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The author, the Rev. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, was twice brutally beaten by the secret police and is one of the leaders of a drive to expose clergy who supplied information to authorities. The church, he says, must confess and repent to heal wounds.
"The church's avoiding of the problem could lead to irreversible harm," he wrote in an introduction. "Above all, it will cast a shadow on those clergy (and they were the vast majority) who never cooperated with the secret police."
Publication of the book -- titled "Priests In The Face Of The Security Services" -- coincides with a surge of interest in the issue following the surprise resignation in January of Warsaw Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus.