Poland’s prime minister on Wednesday stepped in to defend the good name of St. John Paul II, a “great fellow-countryman,” following claims that he knew of sex abuse of minors by priests under his authority while archbishop in Poland and sought to conceal it.
The report aired this week on TVN24 struck at a highly respected figure in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. It provoked a mixed response, especially as some of the documentation it quoted came from the files of the communist-era secret security service that had been seeking to compromise the church.
