Polish investigators have announced that they had rejected a host of complaints over the latest outburst by the boss of a Polish Catholic radio station who has courted controversy for anti-Semitism.Father Tadeusz Rydzyk’s reported comments did "not take the form of a forbidden act," Ewa Janczur, deputy prosecutor in the northern city of Torun where the cleric’s Radio Maryja media empire is based, said Tuesday.
She said the law had not been broken in either of the cases.
In July, Rydzyk was caught up in a new dispute over the publication of a leaked recording slamming Polish President Lech Kaczynski for giving in to Jewish demands for compensation for property lost after the Holocaust, and for suggesting Jews wanted to strip Poland of billions of dollars.
Following the publication in the weekly magazine Wprost, 17 people lodged complaints with Torun’s prosecutors, demanding legal action against Rydzyk.
Israel’s ambassador to Poland David Peleg also urged the government and Roman Catholic authorities to condemn Rydzyk’s remarks, but there has been no public reaction to his call.
He called them the worst case of anti-Jewish language Poland has seen since an anti-Semitic campaign in 1968 that drove thousands of Jews to flee the country.
Three weeks ago, Rydzyk was among a group of Polish pilgrims granted an audience by Pope Benedict XVI at his summer residence in Castelgandolfo, which sparked anger among Jewish groups.
The Vatican later issued an uncommon explanatory note saying the meeting "implies no change in the well-known position of the Holy See on relations between Catholics and Jews".
Radio Maryja claims some three million listeners, which is only a fraction of the more than 90 percent of Poland’s 38.2 million people who say they are Catholic.
Political influence But it wields considerable political influence in Poland and has campaigned openly for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, even though it has begun sniping at Poland’s conservative leaders for allegedly going soft.
The Radio Maryja media empire, which also includes a television station, mixes Catholic fundamentalist, Polish nationalist and anti-liberal ideologies.
Last year, Rydzyk was reprimanded by the pontiff over what were considered anti-Semitic broadcasts.
Rome ordered Poland’s bishops to set up a watchdog body for the radio, but it apparently has had little impact and the Church has faced criticism for failing to bring Rydzyk under control.
Rydyzk has not denied making the latest comments, which were reportedly part of a lecture delivered to an April conference at the Social Culture and Media school he set up several years ago in Torun to keep his media staffed.
However, he has accused Wprost of "provocation". In his remarks, Rydzyk called the president “a liar” and also lashed out at Maria Kaczynska, Poland’s first lady, calling her a "witch" for opposing a failed attempt by hardline Catholic lawmakers to ban abortion, which is already highly restricted in Poland, and suggesting she should kill herself rather than unborn children.
He also told his students that the Jedwabne case – a pogrom of Jews in 1941 which was established by the Polish National Institute of Remembrance as being committed by Poles, and not by Nazis as was previously believed - was used by Jews to extort 65 billion dollars from Poland.
The lecture was taped in secret.
No decision has been made on Rydzyk’s insult of the president’s wife because she has not filed any complaint yet.
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