Thursday, April 28, 2005
Polish Priest Accused of Spying on Late Pope
A POLISH priest working at the Vatican was accused yesterday of collaborating with communist Poland’s secret police in the 1980s even as Pope John Paul II inspired his countrymen to resist the regime.
The Rev Konrad Stanislaw Hejmo, a member of the Dominican order, “was a secret collaborator of the Polish secret services under the names Hejnal and Dominik”, said Leon Kieres, head of the National Remembrance Institute, which guards communist-era police files.
Replying to the accusation, the priest, 69, said in Rome that he had never co-operated knowingly with secret police. He confirmed that he had written reports on church matters for Polish church officials and had been sharing the reports with an acquaintance introduced to him by other priests.
He had only just learnt that the man, a Pole who was living in Germany but had since died, might have been an intelligence agent working for the Stasi, the East German secret service.
The Rev Konrad Stanislaw Hejmo, a member of the Dominican order, “was a secret collaborator of the Polish secret services under the names Hejnal and Dominik”, said Leon Kieres, head of the National Remembrance Institute, which guards communist-era police files.
Replying to the accusation, the priest, 69, said in Rome that he had never co-operated knowingly with secret police. He confirmed that he had written reports on church matters for Polish church officials and had been sharing the reports with an acquaintance introduced to him by other priests.
He had only just learnt that the man, a Pole who was living in Germany but had since died, might have been an intelligence agent working for the Stasi, the East German secret service.
