POLAND:The new archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, was accused yesterday of collaborating with the communist-era secret police (SB), just a fortnight after being named as successor to a fierce opponent of Poland's former Soviet-backed regime.
The Gazeta Polska newspaper reported that it had "access to documents which show beyond any doubt that collaborated with the SB for more than 20 years".
The newspaper accused him of being an "eager informant" of the SB, operating under the codename "Adam".
Earlier this month, Pope Benedict named Wielgus to succeed the renowned Cardinal Jozef Glemp in one of the most important roles in the Polish church.
According to Poland's PAP news agency, Wielgus admitted to having met SB officers when applying for a passport, something that was standard procedure for clerics during communism, when the church was a bastion of moral resistance to the regime.
But he vehemently denied ever being a police agent. "I have never been an informer," he said, calling the accusation part of "a planned attack that appears to be a hoax", carried out by people who oppose his views.
"They tried to recruit me but I never did anything that could harm anyone," he said of his meetings with SB operatives.
