To defend John Paul II, the Vatican unites

“Non toccare il Santo”, as we used to say in Rome. Do not touch the saint. A few days after the broadcast, in Poland, of a documentary accusing John Paul II of having covered acts of paedocrime before his election as pope, these revelations provoked both perplexity and indifference in Rome.

Many point out that the holiness of John Paul II, proclaimed by Francis in 2014, prevents opening any new reflection on the possible responsibilities of the Polish pope in this complex dossier. The Vatican has not officially reacted since the publication of this journalistic investigation, according to which Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Krakow, would have moved a pedophile priest abroad, without telling his diocese. welcome.

“This story is an organized attack”

In an interview granted to the Argentine daily La Nacion, and published on March 11, Pope Francis calls, as he often does when he is subjected to accusations dating back several decades, to “resituate things in their time”. “Anachronism always hurts. At the time, everything was hidden,” he says.

“I don’t know the case,” he insists, while claiming that this practice of moving an accused priest was “usual” in the past. To “cover up the affair” or “dismiss” the implicated priest.

The subject was not on the menu of the interview, Friday, March 10, between Francis and the president of the Polish episcopate, Mgr Stanislaw Gadecki, according to the latter. “This story is an organized attack. It comes either from Russia or from Western Europe, where Catholic Poland is considered an anomaly,” he said on Friday in Rome to a few journalists.

Weekly mass

At the Vatican, we readily recall that plots against the Church having been commonplace for years, under the communist era, the documents brandished today to incriminate John Paul II could very well come under this logic. And that it is not appropriate to judge yesterday’s situations with today’s criteria.

“We must not forget that for years Poland was a communist country, where the creation of false documents by the secret police was widely used to attack the Church, and in particular the resistant priests”, also argues a Polish diplomatic source.

At St. Peter’s Basilica, the tomb of John Paul II continues to hold a mass every Thursday at 7:10 a.m., in the presence of the Polish ambassador to the Holy See. Thursday, March 9, a few days after the revelation of the documentary, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the dicastery for charity, took advantage of his presence on the spot to translate, too, the majority thought in the Vatican. “We don’t care about that. The truth will speak for itself and all lies will be brought to light,” he said.

On March 19, it is also on the tomb of the Polish saint that Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwicz, former private secretary of John Paul II, will celebrate mass. A way to celebrate the anniversary of his episcopal ordination, twenty-five years ago, by John Paul II. And to recall that in Rome, the Polish pope remains an indisputable saint.

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