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WARSAW - Warsaw archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, who resigned after admitting spying for the communist-era secret police, today denied he had misled Pope Benedict about his past.
The Vatican's envoy to Poland said yesterday the archbishop had concealed his collaboration from the Pontiff.
But Wielgus told KAI Catholic news agency he did not lie in his oath made to the envoy in December and that he fully stood by the text, which KAI published in full on its website.
"I swear that in the course of meetings and talks with police and intelligence services in connection with my trips abroad in the 1970s I never spoke out against the Church and never did or said anything bad against members of the clergy or laity," the oath said.
The envoy, archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, himself under fire for failing to do his homework on Wielgus, said he had no reason to doubt his assurances.
"It is assumed that a bishop testifying under oath cannot mislead anyone," Kowalczyk told TVN24 news channel in response to Wielgus' statement.
Faced by a major crisis of confidence in the Church, Poland's Episcopate announced on Friday that all the country's bishops would be investigated.
The Wielgus affair has also triggered fresh government initiatives to settle accounts with the communist era, including a proposal to slash the generous pensions enjoyed by retired secret police officers.
The Polish Church supported the pro-democracy Solidarity movement during the 1980s, inspired by Polish-born Pope John Paul II. But priests had been particularly targeted by secret police recruiters and historians say up to 10 per cent may have collaborated.
- REUTERS
