St. John Paul II, circa 1992. / L’Osservatore Romano.
CNA Newsroom, Dec 7, 2022 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Journalists investigating secular and Catholic Church sources in Poland have called into question allegations by a Dutch writer that St. John Paul II “covered up” sexual abuse while still a bishop in Poland.
On Dec. 2, Ekke Overbeek, a journalist from the Netherlands living in Poland, said he had found “concrete cases of priests abusing children in the Archdiocese of Krakow, where the future pope was archbishop. The future pope knew about it and transferred them anyway, which led to new victims.”
Overbeek referred to the case of the priest Eugeniusz Surgent and “many others” whom Karol Wojtyla allegedly “covered up.”
The Dutch publication NOS, in which Overbeek’s statements appeared, reported the journalist spent three years combing “Polish archives.”
“Almost all documents collected directly about Wojtyla have been destroyed. However, in other surviving documents, he is mentioned very often. And if you put them all together, they are pieces of a puzzle that give a picture of how he dealt with it,” the writer stated, without saying which archives he was referring to.
Polish journalists Tomasz Krzyżak and Piotr Litka of Rzeczpospolita published an investigation that countered Overbeek’s accusations, stating St. John Paul II did not cover up any abuse and consistently acted against such cases during his time as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978.
The reporters point out that the priest in question, Surgent, was not from the Archdiocese of Krakow but from the Diocese of Lubaczów.
As archbishop of Krakow, the then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla made several decisions concerning Surgent, they explained, “within his competencies, leaving the final word on possible sanctioning of the priest to his ordinary, the bishop of Lubaczów.”
The journalists added that “the then archbishop of Krakow could not do anything about the fact that Surgent was working in two other dioceses.”
The Polish reporters also referred to another incident that illustrated how Cardinal Wojtyla at the time dealt with abuse, namely the case of priest Józef Loranc, who was accused of sexually abusing young girls.
“The absence of punitive measures by the ecclesiastical court does not cancel the crime and does not undo the guilt,” Cardinal Wojtyla wrote in a 1971 letter to Loranc after he was released from prison.
For Krzyżak and Litka, “this behavior” of the later Pope John Paul II “differs considerably from the practice of leniency toward those who had committed such crimes, which was common at the time.”
In the case of Loranc, a priest of the Archdiocese of Krakow until his death in 1992, “Cardinal Wojtyla made immediate decisions in accordance with canon law. And while he gradually lifted canonical penalties and showed great mercy, he remained ever vigilant,” the journalists wrote.
When Cardinal Wojtyla learned of the case in 1970, his decision came just days after learning of the accusations against Loranc.
In a letter, the future Pope John Paul II stated that the accused priest was “suspended” and “could not exercise any priestly function” and would have to “live in the monastery for a certain period of time and make a retreat and receive help.”
The journalists said that Wojtyla “made all the necessary decisions at that moment: the quick removal of the priest from the parish, the suspension until the matter was resolved, and the obligation to live in a monastery,” where civil authorities then arrested him.
The case did not reach the Vatican, they said, because the provision directing what is now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — then the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — to deal with abuse cases was not issued until 2001.
Although he was eventually allowed to celebrate Mass again, Loran could not return to the “canonical mission of catechesis of children and youth” or to the ministry of the confessional.
The Polish Bishops’ Conference, in a statement published Nov. 14, spoke of “increasingly hearing questions about John Paul II’s attitude toward the tragedy of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people by the clergy and about his response to such crimes during his pontificate.”
“It has been increasingly alleged that the pope did not deal adequately with such acts and did little to address the problem, or even covered it up,” the statement continued.
The bishops decried these as a “media assault” on St. John Paul II and his pontificate. The target of such criticisms was “his teaching expressed, for example, in encyclicals such as Redemptor hominis or Veritatis splendor, as well as in his theology of the body, which does not correspond to contemporary ideologies promoting hedonism, relativism, and moral nihilism.”
The statement was not the first time Polish Catholic leaders responded to allegations against St. John Paul II.
In December 2020, following criticism of the Polish pope in the wake of the McCarrick report, 1,700 professors at Polish universities and research institutes signed an appeal defending St. John Paul II.
The signatories included Hanna Suchocka, Poland’s first female prime minister; former foreign minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld; physicists Andrzej Staruszkiewicz and Krzysztof Meissner; and film director Krzysztof Zanussi.
The professors’ appeal followed an intervention by Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference. In a Dec. 7, 2020, statement, Gądecki deplored what he called “unprecedented attacks” on St. John Paul II. He insisted that the pope’s “highest priority” was combating clerical abuse and protecting young people.
[…]
A welcome testament to the faith by Pope Francis. Perhaps he doesn’t hold to enforcing doctrine on abortion and the Eucharist as a matter of pastoral preference. Although therein is the exact line of demarcation to permitting misunderstanding of Church policy and abuse of the sacraments, and restoring the practice of the faith as a good shepherd.
Tying more knots is not undoing knots. If the first knots are bad the new knots add badness. Calling it undoing of knots is even worse; and misleading.
Using the name of the BVM deflecting attention from the new knots and the other knots not untied, is a bad thing too, piling on badness and injury.
If you admit you do not know enough about the juridical aspects, it doesn’t follow that allowing communion is “not political” or “not political consequences”.
Even if you knew the juridical issues down pat, giving communion also has “political consequences” and can unfold into “political” arranging and lunging.
If during the 20th Century a same type of casuistry admitted homosexuality to the extent we have witnessed, then: What do you think you are doing now?
In this Reuters posting, sourced from LIFESITE, there is a 3-minute video with some of the discussion directly coming from the Holy Father.
‘ In a 90-minute conversation on Saturday afternoon, conducted in Italian, with no aides present, the 85-year-old pontiff also repeated his condemnation of abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month.
…..
Francis used a cane as he walked into a reception room on the ground floor of the Santa Marta guest house where he has lived since his election in 2013, eschewing the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors.
The room has a copy of one of Francis’ favourite paintings: “Mary, Untier of Knots”, created around 1700 by the German Joachim Schmidtner.
Asked how he was, the pope joked: “I’m still alive!” ‘
https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-pope-francis-denies-he-is-planning-resign-soon-2022-07-04/
We read: “Pope Francis told Reuters: ‘When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem. That’s all I can say.’”
The false dichotomy regarding what is truly “pastoral”? The Laity, then, must turn to others who do have more to say…Surely, there’s more to say on what is actually the cause of the “political problem” and, within the Church, on the significant details of the sacramental life?
“A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [not moral judgment] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not]” (Pope St. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 56).
Does he reflect well on the church? Is he a man of constant prayer and devotion to the duties of a servant of Christ?
James 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
We must examine our ways constantly, our enemy is strong, yet Christ is stronger.
Then, by the Pope’s own reasoning, he has been a pastoral failure himself. He has not led Biden and Pelosi back to the Church relative to their unrelenting support and advancement of abortion on demand while claiming it is in accord with Catholic doctrine.
A feckless and increasingly ignored papacy.
I’ll go with Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, July 4.
From what I have read, the pope believes pro-abortion catholic politicians should be led through a dialogue with compassion and tenderness to see the error of their ways. Is this any way to treat Nancy Pelosi? What prominent politician has ever changed to pro-life from pro-choice because of a pastoral dialogue with his bishop? Politicians understand clearly the Church’s teaching; they just want to win elections and get money, power and votes any way they can.
Abp Cordileone has spent years talking with or trying to talk with Speaker Pelosi. In recent months (or longer), she’s not responded to his requests for conversation. So, he followed the path encouraged by Pope Francis. There simply comes a time when a line must be drawn. Endless talk leads to no action, which only perpetuates the problems.
From womb to tomb – life is sacred and a precious gift. Long live life.