VATICAN CITY - JOHN PAUL II

Polish historian reveals John Paul II was spied on by the priests closest to him

Lasota's book "Karol Wojtyla spiato" (Spying on Karol Wojtyla) is available in Italian and can be purchased exclusively online

Andrea Tornielli
 

vatican city 05/29/2012

The extent to which the communist secret police controlled Karol Wojtyla’s actions was incredible…” Marek Lasota who was born in 1960 and has a degree in Polish philosophy, with a specialism in history, lives among mounds of letters accumulated by the communist regime and kept in the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), where he is head of the Krakow section. After years of patient research, he has gathered a number of reports and dossiers on Wojtyla. Lasota’s “Karol Wojtyla spiato” (Spying on Karol Wojtyla), published by Intercienze, comes out in Italian in just a few days. The book is a collection of the regime’s secret documents on the pope who passed away in 2005.In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa the scholar also revealed the names of some collaborationist priests whom he mentions in the book. 

 “During the communist era, authorities saw all priests as enemies of the people and the party – Lasota explains – and they were placed under surveillance by the political police, the “Bezpieca”. Wojtyla had been under surveillance since 1946. This intensified in 1958 when he became Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. As an archbishop in the ‘60s, he was considered a dangerous political opponent. This is why he was ferociously monitored in everything he did.”  

One of the documents presented in the book is particularly striking. It contains 98 questions which spies who kept an eye on the future pope had to answer: attention was paid to every minute detail of his daily life. From the time at which he got up in the morning to his morning activities and the order in which these took place; from how frequently he shaved to the “cosmetics” he used.

 

There were questions about his habits in the office, which documents he took home with him, whether he took the keys to his desk with him, what he talked about at lunch, whether he “liked playing bridge or other card games, or chess” and with whom he played, whether he smoked or whether he liked alcoholic drinks (“how much does he drink and how often”). The secret police even wanted to know “who supplied his underwear,” who “washed his underwear, socks etc.,” whether “he possessed a medicine cabinet and what medication it contained.”

The worrying extent of the spying was revealed as the historian delved deeper into the “Bezpieka” archives: “It is estimated – he stated – that about ten per cent of the Polish clergy had collaborated with the communists in some form of other. Wojtyla was surrounded by a number of priests who collaborated with the secret police, passing on information about him.” Some of these priests got closer to Wojtyla in moments of weakness, because they were involved in some alcohol, money or sex related affair.

 “Wojtyla – Lasota reveals – was being spied on by priests Wladyslaw Kulczycki, Mieczyslaw Satora, Boleslaw Sadus, Chris Michalowski, Zygmunt Siudmak and Joseph Szczotkowski. Fr. Sadus, who passed away in 1990, worked as a parish priest in Krakow and collaborated under the code name “Brodecki”. Fr. Szczotkowski, who operated under the code name “Rose” and died in 2000, had been a canonical priest in Krakow Cathedral and had worked in the city’s curia. But it was not just priests who supplied information to the secret police: many of the people closest to him ended up collaborating with the “Bezpieka”. 

The spying on Wojtyla continued until after 16 October 1978, when the Cardinal of Krakow was surprisingly elected Pope. “A report dated 30 November 1984 contains the code names of eleven secret collaborators:  Sylwester, Turysta, Sowa, Wolski, Pawlik, Łucjan, Janowski, Robert, Gross, Seneka and Filozof.” “Tourist – Lasota explained during his interview with La Stampa newspaper – was Fr. Antoni Siuda’s code name; Seneka worked for Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny. But there were also some westerners who presented themselves as spies of the regime also became involved: this form of “enrollment under foreign colours” emerged in some reports on the Polish Dominican priest Konrad Hejmo. 

Out of the sea of documents, reports and dossiers on Wojtyla, he came out completely clean. He could not be blackmailed, manipulated or influenced. The communist police’s check-up newspaper therefore confirmed that cardinals made the right choice during the 1978 conclave.

*  Karol Wojtyla spiato (Spying on Karol Wojtyla) by historian Marek Lasota, (Interscienze editions, pp. 288, €23,40), which reveals the spying activities carried out against John Paul II during the rule of the Polish communist regime, is not available in bookstores but can be purchased online at: http://www.karolwojtylaspiato.it/

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New archbishop of Denver: There’s ‘tremendous joy when you know you’ve saved an unborn child’

by Ben Johnson

Tue May 29 5:42 PM EST

DENVER, COLORADO, May 29, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The archbishop-designate of Denver, the Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, has heartened the pro-life community with his long history of pro-life activism. 

Pope Benedict XVI selected the 61-year-old native Californian, who lived in Colorado for 25 years, as Denver’s fifth archbishop. He will follow Archbishop Charles Chaput, who will lead the archdiocese of Philadelphia.   

After serving as founding rector of St. John Vianney Seminary, he moved to Fargo, North Dakota, for 11 years, just over ten of those as its bishop. He briefly oversaw the diocese of Sioux Falls in 2005.

Upon learning of his elevation, he told the Catholic News Agency society must “get back to the basic dignity of the human person.” 

The next shepherd of the 1.5-million member archdiocese has strongly supported the 40 Days for Life campaign, encouraging all priests to spend an hour in front of an abortion facility. In 2007, he said, “As your bishop, I ask you to sign up for an hour of prayerful vigil, as well. Tell your parishioners when that hour will be and challenge them to meet or exceed your example.” 

He taught by his actions, leading a Eucharistic procession to Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo and holding a prayer service in front of the abortion facility in 2009.

Reflecting on that history after his selection, Bishop Aquila said, “there’s always the tremendous joy when you know you’ve saved an unborn child.”

(Click “like” if you want to end abortion! )

His words and actions have drawn a bright line separating Roman Catholic doctrine from participation in the inherent evil of abortion.

Last Ash Wednesday, he and fellow North Dakota bishop Paul Zipfel instructed the faithful not to give their Lenten alms to “support or endorse individuals and organizations that provide, promote, or advocate for abortion, contraception, reproductive rights/‘family planning,’ or embryonic stem cell research” – including the March of Dimes and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

 

However, he has been perhaps most outspoken in the need to enforce Church discipline against Catholic lawmakers who support abortion.

Bishop Aquila proposed a simple solution for politicians who support abortion and refuse to hear the voice of the Church: “Expel him.” Allowing such people to receive the Eucharist would only “leave them in their sins and confuse the faithful,” he said.
 
In 2004, when Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said he personally opposed abortion but voted to keep it legal, Bp. Aquila gave a Sunday homily on the topic, saying, “Catholics who separate their faith life from their professional and social activities are putting the salvation of their souls in jeopardy. They risk the possibility of Hell.”

Four years later he said, “Some believe that it is possible to be a faithful Catholic and be pro-choice. This is impossible. Abortion is an intrinsic evil.”

The Obama administration has presented fresh difficulties for the Roman Catholic hierarchy. 

The bishop opposed the president’s signature accomplishment, national health care reform, or any system that includes “provisions for actions which deny the dignity of human life, especially abortion, euthanasia, whether passive or active, and embryonic stem cell research.”

He forcefully rejected the notion that the reform had to be handled at the federal level. “There is a danger in being persuaded to think that the national government is the sole instrument of the common good,” he said. “Rather, according to the classic principle of subsidiarity in Catholic social thought, many different communities within society share this responsibility.”

When Notre Dame invited President Obama to give its 2009 commencement address, he wrote to the university’s president, “‘you are not on the side of God, but of men’ (Mt 16:23).”

The bishop has defended marriage as strongly as he has innocent life. “The Church has been clear that marriage can only be between a man and a woman,” he has said, “and we need to continue to speak clearly to society on the truth, dignity, and meaning of marriage.”  

Treading into such contentious but non-negotiable issues, Bishop Aquila has embraced Caritas in Veritate, speaking the truth in love.  During the keynote address to the 10th Annual Symposium on the Spirituality and Identity of the Diocesan Priest in Philadelphia last year, he said, “Correction can be difficult and painful, as parents know, yet as a shepherd I am willing to suffer the rejection and anger of another when I speak the truth for the good of the person and the Bride of Christ. To correct and/or to punish someone who has gravely sinned against real love is an act of servant love and is found in the truth!” 

In its media coverage, the Associated Press referred to His Grace as “Monsignor Samuel Aquila.”

 

The archbishop-designate said his other priorities include priestly formation and youth and women’s ministries.

REILLY: Georgetown: ‘Fertile ground’ for anti-Catholicism

Honoring pro-abortion Sebelius is a betrayal of church’s mission

By Patrick J. Reilly

The Washington Times

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

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  Illustration: Georgetown University by Linas Garsys for The Washington Times

Story Topics

• Religion_Belief
• Education
• Kathleen Sebelius
• Georgetown University
• Roman Catholic Church

Georgetown University seems to be in serious danger of losing what makes it truly special: its historical commitment to a quality Catholic education. The university’s stately spires, topped with crosses and standing high above the nation’s capital, are a permanent reminder of the fervent Catholic faith and vision of Archbishop John Carroll and his fellow Jesuit missionaries who founded Georgetown the same year the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

But today those crosses stand in stark contrast to the rapid secularization of America’s oldest Catholic university and the unprecedented threats from the White House, just blocks away, to the religious freedom of America’s largest religious denomination.

Both problems, the secularist oppression of the Obama administration and the secularization of Georgetown, will be on display this Friday when the university presents Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the speaker for its Public Policy Institute diploma ceremony.

In 2008, the former governor of Kansas was asked by her bishop to stop receiving Communion because of her “30-year history of advocating and acting in support of legalized abortion.” Now at HHS, Mrs. Sebelius is the chief architect of a health insurance mandate that would force Catholic colleges and universities, in violation of Catholic teaching, to provide coverage for sterilization and contraception to both students and employees.

Instead of standing by the Catholic bishops and fighting this clear violation of religious liberty, Georgetown has been on the sidelines - until now. Honoring Mrs. Sebelius is a public betrayal of the Catholic Church and all religious people in America.

In many ways, Georgetown’s choice is even more offensive than Notre Dame’s commencement honors to President Obama in 2008. At the time, the president was still making promises to respect the consciences of faithful Catholics. But Mrs. Sebelius has helped him break those promises, which probably is why more than 26,000 have signed the petition at GeorgetownScandal.com calling on Georgetown to rescind the invitation.

Of course, Georgetown’s betrayal of its Catholic roots didn’t begin with the Sebelius flap. Many campus speakers in recent years have offended Catholics, including pornographer Larry Flynt, who warned students, “The Church has had its hand on our crotch for 2,000 years.” Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown student-turned-contraception-activist, earned a prominent lecture on campus instead of correction for her opposition to the bishops.

Many Georgetown professors have opposed Catholic moral teaching on abortion, same-sex marriage and physician-assisted suicide. Madeleine K. Albright and Donna Brazile are perhaps the best-recognized. The Rev. Robert Drinan, a longtime law professor who is still celebrated at the law school after his death in 2007, infamously served in Congress while supporting abortion rights. Judith Feder is a next-generation “pro-choice” politician even while serving as a professor and former dean of the graduate program that will host Mrs. Sebelius on commencement day.

To be sure, some magnificent professors, such as the Rev. James V. Schall, a Jesuit priest, remain on the faculty. Even so, one of Father Schall’s accomplished peers in the government department, Patrick J. Deneen, recently announced his escape with a devastating public critique. Georgetown, he wrote, “increasingly and inevitably remakes itself in the image of its secular peers, ones that have no internal standard of what a university is for other than the aspiration of prestige for the sake of prestige, its ranking rather than its commitment to truth.”

Outside the classroom, Catholic students also find much to regret: condoms distributed in the university’s “Red Square,” the ironically labeled campus free-speech zone; annual performances of “TheVaginaMonologues”; Georgetown’s well-funded LGBTQ (lesbian gay bisexual transgender questioning) Resource Center; groups like H*yas for Choice and Law Students for Reproductive Justice opposing the church on abortion and contraception, and much more.

Last year, Georgetown’s Jesuits released a video intended to celebrate their work on campus, but in the process, they helped explain their diminishing relevance. “Our job as educators and as priests is not to bring God to people, or even to bring people to God,” said the Rev. Ryan Maher, associate dean and director of Catholic studies. “God’s already there and the people are already there. Our job, our way, of living out our educational vocation is to ask the right questions, and to help young people ask those questions.”

By shying away from answers about God and truth, Georgetown seems almost ashamed of its mission as a “Catholic and Jesuit” university. Contrary to claims that this makes Georgetown a “true” university, it threatens the end of once-prestigious Jesuit education. The wavering fidelity of Georgetown and most large Catholic universities leaves too many students unaware or uncertain of their purpose in life beyond the accumulation of knowledge and career preparation.

Secularization cannot replace faith; it only leaves a void to be filled. Georgetown’s students are under intense pressure in today’s culture to veer away from Catholic morality.

In this context, perhaps Catholics should not be so shocked by recent reports that al Qaeda once thought Catholics to be “fertile ground” for conversion to Islam. There’s no denying the shaky ground upon which many young Catholics stand today. The failure of some Catholic schools and colleges to embrace the Catholic faith with honesty and confidence indeed prepares “fertile ground” for ideologies like the secularism and relativism championed by Kathleen Sebelius.

Patrick J. Reilly is president of the Cardinal Newman Society.

Short Statements on Faith

Faith is a mystery. Reason alone cannot explain why those who haven’t seen Him, they believe in Him.

Faith is infused in us by the Holy Spirit; that means the Lord touches those who He wants to follow Him. 

The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father only through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Faith is reinforced by prayers; but prayers and deeds must go hand by hand.