The report aired on TVN24, a major news channel in Poland, and has sparked controversy among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

A former priest named Marek Dziewiecki provided testimony for the report, claiming that he informed Archbishop Wojtyla about sexual abuse within the Church in the 1970s.

Dziewiecki claims that he was told to keep quiet about the issue and that nothing was done to address it.

The report cites other sources claiming that Archbishop Wojtyla was aware of the problem but chose not to act.

In the March 6 story, TVN24 named three priests whom the future pope had moved among parishes or sent to a cloister during the 1970s, including one sent to Austria, after they were accused of abusing minors.

TVN24 said its investigation found that two of the priests, Eugeniusz Surgent and Jozef Loranc, eventually served short prison terms for the abuse.

Allegations of sexual abuse have plagued the Catholic Church for decades, and the issue has been particularly contentious in Poland in recent years.

The country has a deeply religious population, and the Catholic Church has long significantly influenced Polish society.

However, in recent years, scandals involving priests and allegations of abuse have rocked the Church's reputation and led to calls for reform.

Full investigation called for

The TVN24 report is likely to add fuel to the fire, with many people calling for a full investigation into the allegations.

The report comes at a time when the Catholic Church is already facing intense scrutiny over handling sexual abuse cases in Poland and worldwide.

The Polish-born pope is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the Catholic Church in the 20th century.

He served as Pope from 1978 until he died in 2005 and, for the Catholic Church, was quickly canonised a saint.

The canonisation took place in 2014.

However, the allegations made in the TVN24 report raise serious questions about the legacy of Pope John Paul II and his handling of the sexual abuse issue.

10/03/23 Updated with two unattributed paragraphs removed.

Sources

SCNOW

National Catholic Register

Retired Archbishop Henryk Gulbinowicz was sanctioned by the Vatican last week after the 97-year-old was accused of sexually abusing a seminarian and of covering up abuse in another case.

Private Polish broadcaster TVN24 on Monday night aired a documentary suggesting that another well-respected churchman, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, covered up sex abuse by priests in Poland and elsewhere, including abuse of minors by the Mexican priest Marcial Meciel Degollado.

The head of Poland's Catholic episcopate, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, said in a statement Tuesday he hopes that "all doubts" presented in the documentary "Don Stanislao. The other face of Cardinal Dziwisz" will be "clarified by the appropriate commission of the Holy See."

Read More

Just past the Polish border, passengers traveling by train from Berlin to Warsaw can see Jesus. He is 36-meters (118 feet) tall, made of concrete, and towers over the surrounding fields near the town of Swiebodzin, a gilded crown perched nobly on his head. His gaze is directed over the Recaro plant, which makes car seats and is the region's biggest employer, and toward the setting sun. His outstretched arms seem to suggest that he wishes to take the Western heathens into his heart.

The plaque at the base of the giant religious statue says that Jesus Christ is the true king of Poland and will rule for eternity. It is not for nothing that the country is, in the eyes of the church at least, Europe's most Catholic nation.

Yet despite the monumental redeemer, Swiebodzin has not become a pilgrimage site. "The statue has not triggered a tourism boom yet," confirms Waldemar Roszczuk, editor-in-chief of the city's newspaper and publisher of a regional Internet publication.

Much to the annoyance of Father Sylwester Zawadzki, who is responsible for the socialist-realist version of Christ. That, in any case, is what Roszczuk reports. Christ's realm is not necessarily of this world, he says, at least in Swiebodzin.

"The majority of the population is against this monument, but no one says so openly," he says. Most locals, he suggests, are concerned about the baptism or first communion of their children and "would rather not spoil things with Father Zawadzki."

Some 95 percent of all Poles still say that they are Catholic. Yet loyalty to the church is waning. Even the conservative Catholic publicist Tomasz Terlikowski estimates the true number of devout Catholics at little more than 20 percent. "We Poles like to proclaim our Catholicism," he says, but the reality looks quite different. Read more

Sources

• Spiegel Online International
• Image: nomadlife