POLAND:Serious doubts surround the inauguration of the new archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, on Sunday after files published yesterday suggest he worked as a secret informer for the communist-era secret police (SB), telling them he viewed Polish Catholicism as "backward".
Two weeks after the first media allegations, denied by the archbishop, a newspaper released 68 pages of microfilm documents yesterday from 1973-78, detailing 50 meetings agents held with Bishop Wielgus, code-named "Grey".
The file suggests that he was a secret agent of the SB for 20 years and contains two letters, signed by him, consenting to work with the service. "[ Wielgus] is a good patriot. He values the importance of changes that took place in Poland after the second World War," wrote one officer in an evaluation of Agent Grey.
"He has rid himself of religious fanaticism, perceives matters abroad and at home with a clear head. Evaluates negatively the policy of the Polish church hierarchy, especially the tendencies to seek conflicts with the state. He describes Polish Catholicism as backward." Yesterday the Gazeta Polska newspaper posted the dossier on its website, which promptly collapsed as thousands of Poles tried to download the file.
A church commission passed to Archbishop Wielgus an "extensive summary" of its "extensive research" into the files. Commission spokesman Fr Jozef Kloch confirmed there were "question marks, that should be addressed by Archbishop Wielgus himself, if he wishes to".
After a separate investigation, Polish ombudsman Janusz Kochanowksi said it was clear the archbishop was an SB collaborator but that, from the available files, it was impossible to gauge the impact of his actions.
The archbishop has admitted contact with the SB, having first denied it, but only over what was necessary to enable him make academic research trips to Germany.
Most of the files relating to Archbishop Wielgus have apparently been destroyed and the microfilmed files released yesterday contain no reports written by him, apart from relatively innocuous travel reports.
It appears the archbishop was first approached by the SB in 1967 while studying at the Catholic University in Lublin. He agreed to collaborate with it in 1973 and a paper dated September 23rd documents the reward: a grant to study at the University of Munich as well as money and legal protection during his stay.
Before leaving he received a three-day training in "intelligence in enemy countries" and other topics in a secret flat in Warsaw. In addition to expenses, the file says the SB also offered financial support for his parents, something Archbishop Wielgus said "might be a topic in the future".
"He did not hide that he is interested in going to the West because of his scholarly ambitions," wrote a Lieut-Col Mroczek. An "agreement of contact" dated September 23rd, 1973, signed by Archbishop Wielgus, states that during his time in Munich he would meet his SB contact in Salzburg.
"In order to arrange a meeting please send to this address . . . a postcard with a flower on the front with greetings from Stan. It will mean that you are ready to attend the meeting on the 17th day, counting from the date written on the postcard . . . signed Adam Wysocki."
He was told he could arrange a meeting with his handler by waiting outside a church with "the latest issue of the weekly Stern magazine in his right coat pocket, folded so the star on the title page is visible".
The question-answer code words on meeting his agent went as follows: "HQ representative asks first: Have you been last month on a trip to Rome? Response: No, I'm going to the Eternal City next year."
However, Agent "Grey" appears to have been a disappointment. "Grey didn't fulfil the tasks he was given to carry out before going abroad. He was passive and used far-fetched caution when it came to realising the detailed tasks," wrote an officer, named as Kubet, complaining of his "total passivity when it came to acquainting with people of our interest".
Fr Wieslaw Kulisz, a Jesuit priest in the northern town of Turn and a friend of the archbishop, warned yesterday against rash judgment. "I remember him as a wonderful rector, teacher and priest. I wish it were not true since it will be a great painful wound to the church," he said.
At the Archbishop's house in Warsaw last night, the chancellor, Fr Grzegorz Kalwarczyk, declined to comment on whether Sunday's inauguration would go ahead.