Warsaw's new Roman Catholic archbishop was installed at a simple ceremony today, three months after his predecessor resigned in a scandal over ties with the communist-era secret police.Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz, 57, appeared to be fighting back tears as a papal decree appointing him to one of the top church posts in the late Pope John Paul II's homeland was read out at the start of a Mass in the Warsaw Cathedral.
At a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and President Lech Kaczynski, Nycz received a silver staff — the symbol of his new position — from Poland's primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, who served as Warsaw archbishop for more than 25 years.
Glemp said that, under communism, Nycz defended the Church amid the "official hostility of the authorities."
Some 1,500 people inside and outside the cathedral applauded as Nycz sat in the archbishop's chair.
The ceremony was kept simple, with Nycz installed during a regular Palm Sunday Mass rather than at a special service — reflecting the new archbishop's modest, low-key approach.Nycz told worshippers he felt "great responsibility" for the faithful of his new diocese.
"I ask for your prayers to help me become a strong link in this long chain of succession," he said.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Nycz, previously the bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg, last month.
His previous choice, Stanislaw Wielgus, resigned at the start of what was to be his opulent inauguration Mass on Jan. 7 in a move that rattled the Polish church — long revered in the overwhelmingly Catholic country for what Poles have seen as its staunch resistance to the communist regime.
Wielgus' dramatic resignation at Warsaw Cathedral — to cries of "No, No!" and "Stay with us!" from the congregation — came after a church historical commission said it had found evidence that he had cooperated with the secret police.
Wielgus initially denied that, but then acknowledged that he did sign an agreement in 1978 promising to cooperate with the security force in exchange for permission to leave Poland to study in West Germany.
However, he said he did not inform on anyone or try to hurt anyone, and he expressed remorse both for his contacts with the secret police and his failure to be forthcoming from the start.
Church officials and historians say that, while the church was a pillar of resistance, about 10 to 15 percent of Poland's priests were pressured into informing or otherwise cooperating with the secret police.
Nycz is widely seen as holding an impeccable record under communism. John Paul nominated him bishop of Krakow in 1988, where Nycz later organized the last three visits of the Polish-born pope to his homeland.
In 2004, John Paul named Nycz the bishop of the Koszalin-Kolobrzeg diocese on the Baltic Sea coast.
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