Did Not, Did So

Stosh said he didn't ever spy for the Communists. Did not. Never. Wouldn't dream of such a thing. And he's a priest, can't you tell, why, there's the dog collar wrapped around the neck and the whole bit.

Well, yes, maybe there was a little. Not spying, oh my no, said Stosh. Keep in mind the times, and all he wanted was to study abroad, and help his fellow clergy to expand their horizons. Sometimes, back then, a man had to play ball with the commie pinkos in charge. Only did what needed doing, and only just enough to get the job done. Would you have had them choke the Holy Church to death by keeping our religious from studying?

The papers that people relied on to demonstrate Stosh's involvement with the Polish spy agency were prepared by those very spies. Can't trust a word that's printed on them, considering the source. And if that doesn't do it for you, you can blame the Jews. Nothing like a good anti-Semitic conspiracy theory to shift the blame. There's mighty few Jews in Poland these days, ever since Hitler ethnically cleansed the country, but why let that stand in the way of finding someone to fault for Stanislaw Wielgus's predicament?

Come time for the investiture and your man had a crisis of conscience. Must have been next to impossible to mumble the words of the Confiteor with a straight face and a clean heart. Rather than say Mass, the short-lived Archbishop admitted to the congregation attending that he had, in essence, lied through his teeth when he said he had never spied on his fellow clergymen. He admitted that he had some deep ties to the former Polish secret service. He did not meet officials for the sole purpose of obtaining travel visas, as he had asserted earlier.

The Vatican had conducted its own investigation and found Bishop Wielgus's story did not quite check out. Rumor has it that His Holiness suggested that Stosh resign. No matter, because outgoing Cardinal Jozef Glemp defended his hand-picked successor in a fiery sermon that berated the "trial by media", which led to another round of criticism. Like the sex abuse scandal, it looked like those in authority were protecting one of their own, and at a tremendous cost to the moral authority of the Catholic Church.

Conservative Poles are up in arms, decrying the Jewish conspiracy or the media or whatever else suits. Bishop Wielgus was not forced to resign by a left-wing media onslaught. He acted no differently than a relatively amoral business executive climbing his way up the corporate ladder. Unfortunately for poor Stosh, the company he works for is selling a rather pristine product, and standard corporate morality just doesn't make the grade.