Destroying the Church

In Poland, and not only there, the case of Monsignor Stanislaw Wielgus continues to dominate the media. On 9 January, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, in an interview with public TV, defended the archbishop, while new names or pseudonyms of people involved in alleged collaboration with the secret services of the former regime are being published in the press. Father Adam Boniecki, for many years head of the Polish language edition of “L’Osservatore Romano” and currently editor of the Polish Catholic weekly “Tygodnik Powszechny”, thinks it is “necessary to forestall any damaging consequences of the revelations regarding the case of actual or presumed collaboration of representatives of the Polish clergy with the Communist secret services”. The vetting of the national clergy, as also requested by Polish Catholics with an open letter, seems, from this point of view, “however painful, quite appropriate and useful”. We interviewed Father Boniecki. What documents are we talking about when we speak of files of the secret services of the Communist regime in Poland?“After the collapse of the Communist regime in Poland, in 1989, when it was already clear that the former security services had been dismantled, the destruction of the documentation amassed by them since 1946 began. People claim it was destroyed, but it’s not certain that is the case. Perhaps a part of the documents were destroyed, but it’s probable that a part of them were removed and hidden by former members of the security services for purposes only they know. The destruction of the documents was only halted by the Minister of the Interior of the first non-Communist government in Poland, Krzysztof Kozlowski. These surviving documents may be used for purposes of blackmail, to extort money, and to discredit and destroy the reputation of individuals, however innocent. Usually each collaborator had two files: one file called “operative”, in which the material he himself compiled was collected, and another file drawn up his ‘minder’, containing his observations and remarks on the collaborator under his control, plans, orders given or to be given. Often, also in the case of Wielgus, only one of the files is preserved, the one in which his actions are described, but, with some exceptions, documents are not found in it. It should be explained that often, before being destroyed, the files were filmed. And these microfilms have been preserved, as in the case of Msgr. Wielgus, while the original documents no longer exist. For the most part the documents concerning a collaborator are found in various files. For example, we have the file of a collaborator and documentation of the papal visit, in which we may find documents concerning the activities of this collaborator during the Pope’s journey to Poland. Before having analysed the whole archive, which is huge, we cannot be sure whether the material we currently have at our disposal is complete. And there’s another important detail: the archive of the Institute of National Memory (IPN) is only the archive of the security services run by the Ministry of the Interior. Experts emphasise, however, that to gain an overall view of the situation, we would also need to analyse the archives of local committees of the Communist Party. For it’s there that far more important material is to be found. Just there worked the brains who indicated the guidelines for the operation of the secret services”. Do you think that the case of Msgr. Wielgus shows that the study of these archives, the so-calling vetting of the clergy, is necessary?“Vetting, in the sense of a legal procedure, presupposes the obligation for a person to declare his own collaboration with the secret services. In Poland, individuals appointed to public positions are subjected to such vetting. Their statements are checked in the archives of the Institute of National Memory to establish whether they are telling the truth. This procedure does not involve churchmen. In recent years, however, the fact that the clergy and churchmen also included collaborators of the secret services has been ascertained and has slowly entered the public domain. This has happened in Poland, as also in other countries of the former Soviet bloc. In Poland we learned of such collaboration because a number of persons who had occasion to inspect their own documentation in the archives of the IPN found in their own files information laid against them by priests themselves. Cases of collaboration of priests with the regime have also been corroborated by other documents, which have gradually been made public. It was therefore proposed that the Church should analyse the past of its own clergy, and that priests as persons of trust, who exert moral authority and who represent the Church, should clarify their own situation, especially if accusations or insinuations are made against them. But in such cases we should speak not of a vetting procedure in the legal sense, but rather an historical study of the Church in Poland at the time of the Communist regime”. Last August the Polish episcopate drew up a document on the collaboration of some priests with the security services in Poland in the years 1944-1989. The document points out that “free and conscious collaboration with the enemies of the Church and of religion is a sin”. It also recalls that priests forced into collaboration were flanked by a clear majority of the clergy who proved themselves “worthy servants of Christ”. Some even paid with their life. Is this the right approach?“The Memorandum was signed by all the bishops. But it should be said that, before reaching the decision to publish it, there were controversies and discussions, even in public and in the media. A lot of discussion was devoted to whether it was necessary to vet the clergy, while the names of various collaborators, real or presumed, were revealed in the media. The atmosphere surrounding that document was not ideal. The Church, it may be said, did not take a position on the question for some time. On the other hand, the pressure of public opinion was increasing, accompanied by a crescendo of suspicions and insinuations. Following the publication of the Memorandum, some bishops set up commissions with the task of studying the history of their dioceses at the time of the Communist regime, and analysing the conduct of priests, among whom there were some who had been forced, blackmailed or led by bad intentions to collaborate with the enemy”. Why is the establishment of these commissions proceeding so slowly? There are 45 dioceses, but so far only ten or so such commissions have been set up.“The establishment of a commission is not particularly difficult. All that’s needed is to find experts, scholars and historians who have the necessary skills to analyse the documents, persons of high repute. Such a commission was established in Krakow, which is also a university city, but also at Tarnów, which is not. Some bishops, however, are of the view that the work ought to be performed exclusively by historians of the Institute of National Memory. Others maintain that there’s no need in their diocese for such commissions to be set up. Some bishops have declared that all those who had collaborated have already confessed and so think that the case is closed. Gradually, however, the number of dioceses where commissions are at work is increasing. An historical Commission of the episcopate has also been instituted; it deals not with the historical analysis of the individual dioceses, but represents an organ of reference and coordination at the national level”. But perhaps this historical study is a pointless suffering, inflicted on the Church in Poland, which already suffered enough during the Communist regime. Is it not a kind of self-flagellation?“Some think so. Two aspects of the current situation however need to be taken into consideration. The first question defined in the Memorandum is the guilt of priests who collaborated with the regime. One of the objectives of that regime was to destroy the Church. So the priest who became a collaborator committed a public sin. And the Memorandum called for the public expiation of this sin. This is the moral aspect. There’s also the strategic aspect. The documents of the secret services are and will be ever more easily accessible to historians and to journalists. We need to consider that people ill-disposed towards the Church will interpret these documents in their own way. But if the Church herself analyses them, it will be possible to reveal the heroic actions of individuals, to show that some priests involved in difficult situations were able to extricate themselves with their head held high, and to distinguish various circumstances is a more truthful way. We already have an example of such analysis in the diocese of Sandomierz. The history of the diocese written by Father Stanaszek on the basis of the archives of the Communist Party, of the IPN and ecclesiastical archives shows very clearly how the apparatus of destruction worked. And one can see very clearly that the real evil was not the collaborators, but the machine of the secret services whose objective was to destroy the Church. I think this type of study is an example of verification conducted in the right way. It does justice to heroes and considers those who sinned in the context of the situation as a whole”. The spokesman of the Polish bishops, Father Józef Kloch, has said that some bishops have asked the historical Commission of the episcopate to be vetted. Can you envisage an acceleration of the vetting process within the Polish Church?“Undoubtedly the case of Archbishop Wielgus has made many churchmen realize that we are dealing with a very serious problem that could prove a delayed-action bomb capable of exploding at any moment, and that the Church needs to forestall this. In some cases, the most appropriate way of acting may be that chosen by Bishop Skworc of Tarnów, who was for a time involved in collaboration with the secret services. He then asked historians to assess the archival material on him and publicly revealed it”.