When he was a cardinal and bishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla learned of pedophilia in his diocese from priests, who transferred parishes to avoid scandal, study author Michal Gutowski reported.
One of the priests was sent to Austria by the future pope. Wojtyla wrote a letter of recommendation to the cardinal of Vienna, Franz König, without informing him of the accusations against the pastor.
For the investigation, Gutowski met victims of pedophile priests, relatives and former employees of the diocese. The journalist also cites documents from the former communist SB secret police and church archives to which he had access, despite the fact that the Krakow diocese denied him access to his document archives.
A witness, who does not wish to be identified, confirms in the report that he personally informed Cardinal Wojtyla of pedophilia acts committed by a priest in 1973.
“Wojtyla first of all wanted to make sure this was not a mistake. He asked that no party be notified and said he would settle the matter,” the man said, adding that the cardinal had explicitly asked him if it would. may keep the matter confidential.
“What you discovered is revolutionary because it shows what many people have suspected for years: that John Paul II knew the problem existed before he became pope,” said American Thomas Doyle, a former Catholic priest, specialist in canon law and author of one of the first reports on Catholic clergy abuse in the United States.
A book written by the Dutch journalist Ekke Overbeek entitled Maximum guiltwill be released in Poland this week, with similar allegations against Karol Wojtyla.
The press has exposed several cases of pedophilia within the Polish church in recent years. The Vatican punished senior Polish religious officials after this information.
Source: DN
