WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The fallout over an explosive tv document alleging that St. John Paul II lined up clergy intercourse abuse instances escalated Thursday, with Poland’s Catholic Church strongly protecting “one of the most biggest Poles” and the Polish govt inviting the U.S. ambassador for talks.
A document this week on TVN24, which is owned via the U.S. corporate Warner Bros. Discovery, named 3 monks whom John Paul allegedly moved round all over the Nineteen Seventies once they have been accused of abusing minors. On the time, John Paul used to be Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, the pinnacle of the church in Krakow in southern Poland.
John Paul is respected within the predominantly Roman Catholic nation for his position in serving to to deliver down communism, and the TVN document ignited a countrywide debate about his legacy at a time when the Polish Catholic Church total has been present process a reckoning with its personal document of clergy sexual abuse. A heated debate erupted Thursday in parliament debating his legacy.
Executive figures, together with High Minister Mateusz Morawieck i, have strongly defended the overdue pope as a countrywide hero and the rustic’s perfect ethical authority. Leftist politicians seized on allegations that he knowingly secure predator monks, with some calling for John Paul’s identify to be taken off boulevard and college names.
On Thursday, the pinnacle of the Polish bishops convention, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, entered the fray, strongly protecting the overdue pope and interesting to “all other folks of fine will” not to damage his legacy. Gadecki celebrated Mass at John Paul II’s tomb at St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican, praying for many who have been in quest of to discredit the pontiff.
Gadecki joined some critics in casting doubt at the document’s credibility, as one of the documentation it quoted got here from the information of the communist-era secret safety provider that have been in quest of to compromise the church.
“The Polish pope has been an ethical yardstick, a instructor of the religion and an intercessor in heaven” for hundreds of thousands of Poles,” Gadecki stated. “It comes as a surprise that makes an attempt are made to discredit John Paul II himself and his legacy, all within the identify of outrage with reality and excellent.”
Wojtyla served as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978, when he changed into Pope John Paul II. He died in 2005 and used to be declared a saint in 2014 following a fast-track procedure.
Whilst protecting John Paul, Gadecki stated his “sainthood and greatness” don’t imply that he “may now not have made errors.” However he additionally famous that on the time, the church and society at massive dealt otherwise with abuse, and with other laws. “There used to be a distinct social awareness and common techniques of fixing issues,” he stated.
One by one, the dispute won a diplomatic size, when Poland’s Overseas Ministry invited U.S. Ambassador Mark Brzezinski for dialogue concerning the process of a tv station. Whilst TVN wasn’t named, the ministry stated the talks have been in reference to the actions of a tv station “which is an investor within the Polish marketplace,” a transparent connection with TVN. TVN used to be at one level the biggest ever U.S. industry funding in Poland, and its protection is ceaselessly vital of the ruling birthday celebration, with investigations into wrongdoing via government.
The ruling birthday celebration has sought up to now to move regulation that might strip the U.S. proprietor of its controlling stake within the corporate, however the legislation used to be vetoed via President Andrzej Duda in a while sooner than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine amid U.S. power.
The ministry observation stated that possible results of the reviews “are just like the targets of hybrid conflict geared toward resulting in divisions and tensions in Polish society.”
An previous model of the Overseas Ministry’s observation stated the U.S. ambassador used to be being “summoned,” nevertheless it used to be modified to mention “invited.” A summoning would point out that the ambassador used to be being given a be aware of protest. The Overseas Ministry spokesman instructed Polish media that a call for participation used to be a greater mirrored image of the character of the assembly.
John Paul II isn’t the one pope beneath scrutiny for coping with predator monks.
His fast successor, Benedict XVI, who had a far stricter stance and defrocked loads of abusive monks, used to be faulted for his dealing with of 4 instances whilst he used to be Munich archbishop via an impartial document commissioned via the diocese.
Accusations of getting didn’t react to instances of abuse via monks in his local Argentina and in Chile, whilst bishop after which pontiff, had been additionally addressed to Pope Francis.
Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Nicole Winfield in Rome, and Geir Moulson in Berlin, contributed to this document.