Polish Pope’s closest aid to become cardinal

Radio Polonia ^ | 23.02.2006 | Michal Kubicki

[lizol]

Polish Pope’s closest aid to become cardinal

Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, of Kraków, has been named cardinal by Pope Benedict. While the appointment is seen as a victory for the Church’s more open wing in Poland, it comes at a time when the darker aspects of the Church is coming under more and more scrutiny.

Report by Michal Kubicki

The Krakow archbishop is one of 15 new cardinals from five continents whose names were announced by Pope Benedict XVI. In the city of Krakow, which has traditionally had a cardinal as head of archdiocese, the nomination did not come as a surprise. 66 year old Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was the Polish Pope’s closest aide in the Vatican throughout his long pontificate, accepted the Pope’s decision with ‘humility and love’.

“Many years ago I was Father Stanislaw in Krakow, then for 27 years I was Don Stanislao in the Vatican, now, back in Krakow, I’d like to be Father Stanislaw again.”

For most analysts of the Polish scene, the nomination of Stanislaw Dziwisz is a boost for the more open wing of the Church here. Jesuit Father Krzysztof Mądel on the line from Krakow.

“It is true. Even ordinary people are telling me that there were differences among bishops. Under communism, it was scandalous to talk about such differences. Now it is a normal situation that some bishops are more conservative, some are more liberal. Cardinal Dziwisz is certainly more open to all these differences.”

Perhaps the most serious problem that Cardinal Dziwisz will have to tackle is renewed pressure to name clergy who acted as communist agents. Earlier this month, Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski,a former Solidarity union chaplain said he had seen names of clergy agents while reading his own secret police file.

According to Jonathan Luxmoore, a prominent writer on religious affairs in Central Europe, the issue is so sensitive in Poland because the Church’s current position is built to a large extent on its heroic stance in the defence of human rights under communism.

Anything which contradicts that, which presents an alternative picture of that reality, is obviously something which the Church will have to treat very carefully and might indeed be reluctant in purely human way to confront as openly as it should. The issue keeps coming back; there are enterprising journalists and academics who come up with revelations which are published in the media because they are good stories. The time has come when the Church has to sit down and think how it is going to confront the issue. There are individual dioceses that have begun to do this and the Krakow diocese has appointed a special committee which is going to collect all the information and go into it thoroughly.

During the communist period, all priests and seminarians were under strict secret police surveillance. Father Mądel stresses that the Church should not be afraid of a thorough historical analysis, which would present the truth in both light and shadow.

In this very difficult situation there were many heroes and very few collaborators. We need to deal with the traitors, the sad facts of collaboration, reveal the truth about the past to the public opinion and at the same time be proud of those many priests who were good servants of the Church and the people.

The newly nominated cardinal, Stanislaw Dziwisz, is also the executor of the final will and testament of Pope John Paul II. Revealing the names of clergy agents, including those who informed on Cardinal Wojtyla in Poland and who, according to some, still hold church positions, seems to important during the Polish stage of the Pope’s canonization process.