The decision of Polish Bishop's Conference to submit themselves to an investigation regarding past ties with Communist leadership has been welcomed by the Vatican. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, (pic here) the Vatican Secretary of State, confirmed to reporters earlier this week that the move last week by the Polish bishops had full Vatican approval.
However, Cardinal Bertone warned that that archives of the former Polish secret police, the Sluba Bezpieczenstwa, or SB, must be considered with prudence.
The initiative comes in the wake of the controversy over the appointment of former Archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, after he admitted that he had collaborated with the secret service of the former Communist regime.
According to a report by Vatican Radio, local investigative commissions will carry out investigations in dioceses throughout Poland. A National Ecclesiastical Historical Commission to help co-ordinate the investigation will be set up in March. Historians and jurists, among others, will take part.
At present, the Polish government's Institute of National Remembrance, established to investigate and document cases of Communist collaboration, has been entrusted with the files of the secret police. It is thought that the Institute will assist in the investigation of the bishops. The results will be sent to the Holy See, which will have the last word.
Cardinal Bertone said: 'I want to underline the importance for every one, not only for the ecclesiastics, but for all those who in the past were implicated in attitudes of collaboration with any sort of regime.
'I would also like all employees, not only of parties, but also of public administration to submit to this examination, not only in Poland, but also in the rest of the Eastern European countries,' Cardinal Bertone continued
Archbishop Jozef Nuchalik, president of Poland's episcopal conference, has made it clear that the investigation "will be a process of examination carried out independently of newspapers and the state.'
Meanwhile, the Polish bishops, in a further response to recent events surrounding the resignation of Archbishop Wielgus, have called for this year's Ash Wednesday, 21st of February, 'to be a day of prayer and repentance for the entire Polish clergy'.
In a letter to all Polish Catholics, the bishops go on to ask that people 'refrain from passing superficial and rash judgements, for they can be damaging'. In particular, the bishops request that those in power and in the media behave responsibly.
'May Christian conscience and human sensibility suggest to them what should be presented to public opinion and how it should be done, always taking into account the dignity of the human person, and the right to defence and good name, even after one's death,' they continue.
Concluding their letter, they express the hope that the controversy 'will contribute to a renewal of the Church, to a greater transparency and maturity of her members'.
'We believe that it will help the Church to be faithful to the Gospel and look to it for solutions of our problems to be reborn from it in order to be a leaven of good and love in the world.'