Two of the monks, Eugeniusz Surgent and Jozef Loranc, ultimately served quick jail phrases for the abuse, TVN24 stated its 2 and 1/2 year-long investigation discovered. Wojtyla served as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978, when he turned Pope John Paul II. He died in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014 following a fast-tracked course of.
TVN24 quoted from paperwork of Poland’s communist-era secret safety companies, which sought to discredit the Catholic Church and had informers there. The paperwork are held within the archives of the state Nationwide Remembrance Institute. Journalist Marcin Gutowski additionally spoke with a variety of victims and a person who stated he knowledgeable Wojtyla in the course of the Nineteen Seventies in regards to the abuse by Surgent. Not one of the monks had been defrocked.
The TV channel additionally quoted from a letter that it stated Wojtyla wrote to the archbishop of Vienna on the time, Franz Koenig, recommending a priest to his care. Wojtyla didn’t say within the letter that Boleslaw Sadus had abused younger boys, and he was made a parish priest in Austria. Wojtyla saved in contact with Sadus additionally after changing into pope.
TVN24’s investigation concluded that there was little question Wojtyla knew about abuse by monks in his archdiocese and sought to hide it.
The published featured a journalist who has written about instances of priestly abuse in Krakow diocese and who argued that Wojtyla reacted consistent with Catholic Church procedures of the time.
The findings will step by step result in a “deconstruction of the picture of John Paul II that we’ve got been utilizing thus far,” Dominican friar Paweł Gużyński stated on TVN24 on Tuesday, noting that some individuals might not be ready to deal with the brand new info.
Gużyński pressured, nonetheless, that “there isn’t a equality signal between sainthood and complete absence of errors, even crimes, in somebody’s actions.”
The channel’s investigation has unleashed heated reactions in Poland, with some observers deriding it as an try by left-wing forces to destroy the reminiscence of John Paul II and others demanding for the Catholic Church to disclose the reality.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, a Catholic, tweeted a photograph of John Paul II greeting a crowd in Poland and added the late pope’s motto “Don’t be afraid,” with none remark.
A Polish Jesuit priest, Krzysztof Madel, wrote on Twitter that that the main focus must be on the victims, who want the reality to be instructed.
An official on the Ministry of Training, Radoslaw Brzozka, stated on Twitter that John Paul II’s fame was below assault from individuals who need to remove Catholicism from Poland’s nationwide identification.
John Paul II just isn’t the one pope below scrutiny for coping with predator monks.
His quick successor, Benedict XVI, who had a a lot stricter stance and defrocked a whole bunch of abusive monks, was faulted by an impartial report commissioned by the German Catholic Church for his dealing with of 4 instances whereas he was Munich bishop.
Accusations of getting did not react to instances of abuse by monks in his native Argentina and in Chile, whereas bishop after which pontiff, have been additionally addressed to Pope Francis.
Commentators famous that the Catholic Church hierarchy has principally sought to guard the picture of the establishment over the wants of victims.
The selection of Wojtyla for pope in 1978 energized Poland’s predominantly Catholic inhabitants to brazenly oppose the nation’s communist system and ultimately topple it.
Till not too long ago, the Catholic Church in Poland has performed a major position within the nation’s public life. Revelations about pedophile monks and the church’s shut ties with the present right-wing authorities have depreciated its standing.
Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
Observe AP’s protection of sexual abuse by clergy: https://apnews.com/hub/sexual-abuse-by-clergy