Perilous
Times
Jewish groups ask Vatican to punish anti-Semitic Polish
priest
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — International Jewish groups have called on the
Vatican to sanction a prominent Polish priest who they say uses
his media empire to foment anti-Semitism.
They acted after the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk caused uproar in Poland
by calling his country a totalitarian state that "hasn't been
ruled by Poles since 1939."
Though he did not mention Jews by name, his language echoed that
of anti-Semites who claim that Jews hold excessive power in Poland
and that Polish Jews are not "real Poles" with Polish interests at
heart.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, took the
church's distance Monday, saying Rydzyk must assume responsibility
for his own remarks. But he did not raise the possibility of
punishment.
The World Jewish Congress called on the Vatican Tuesday to expel
Rydzyk from his order of priests. The Simon Wiesenthal Center said
he should be excommunicated.
Rydzyk made the comments last week at the European Parliament,
days before Poland takes over the rotating presidency of the
European Union, which Warsaw sees as a chance to improve its image
on the European stage.
Poland's Foreign Ministry took the unusual step of sending a
diplomatic note to the Vatican accusing the priest of "harming the
image of Poland abroad."
Rydzyk runs a conservative media empire that includes the Catholic
station Radio Maryja and the television station Trwam, both
popular among some conservative, nationalist Poles. He has come
under fire in the past from international Jewish organizations.
"The tragedy of Poland is that Poland hasn't been ruled by Poles
since 1939," Rydzyk said, according to Polish media reports on the
speech. He added that, "this isn't an issue of blood or
affiliation," but that those who rule Poland today "do not love in
a Polish way, do not have a Polish heart."
He also said Poland today is a totalitarian and "uncivilized
country."
The number of Jews in Poland today is tiny. There were 3.5 million
Jews in Poland before World War II, but most were murdered by
Germany during the Holocaust and many of those who survived fled
anti-Semitic violence and prejudice when they returned to their
homes after the war.
Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of
Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, called the views vile.
"Rydzyk's comments were the same chilling words of hate we heard
from the virulent anti-Semites in pre-war Poland where more than
three million of our people were murdered during the Holocaust.
They are a vile offense not only to the memory of the victims of
the wartime slaughter of Polish Jewry but were also an insult to
all citizens of modern Poland," said Steinberg.
Rydzyk apologized in an interview published Tuesday in the Nasz
Dziennik daily for some of his remarks, but not those seen as
anti-Semitic.
"I did not say in the European Parliament that we have a
totalitarian system in Poland. If someone misunderstood me, I
apologize," Rydzyk said.
--
AP writer Monika Scislowska contributed from Warsaw