Poland confronts its past

After news reports about his contacts with the communist Secret Service, another man of the Polish Catholic Church - Janusz Bielanski, prelate of the Krakow Wawel Cathedral - withdrew from his post on Monday. László Kasza urges the Hungarian Cardinals to follow the example of their Polish colleagues: "All the heads of the Hungarian Bishops Conference – Czapik, Grősz, Ijjas, Lékai, Paskai, Seregély – and most of the Bishops themselves have worked with the Hungarian Secret Service. Unlike their Polish counterparts, they don't say a word about it publicly. ... They refuse to withdraw, and the Vatican has not dismissed them.... Archbishop Wielgus said in announcing his withdrawal: 'I know that I have done considerable damage to my church.' Such admission of guilt is never heard in Hungary. And there is not a single conservative newspaper in Hungary that would reveal Cardinals as former spies of the communist Secret Service, the way Gazeta Polska did."

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