Church in the World

Rydzyk escapes censure from bishops

Poland

Poland's Catholic bishops have declined to take action to control their country's largest Catholic radio station, despite accusations of  slander and anti-Semitism against the Redemptorist priest who runs it.

Archbishop Jozef Michalik, president of the bishops' conference, said that no disciplinary action would be taken against the director of Radio Maryja, Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk.

In July, prosecutors launched proceedings against Fr  Rydzyk, after the Vprost weekly published a  secretly recorded transcript of alleged remarks by the priest to students, during which he described President Lech Kaczynski as "a  crook subservient to the Jewish lobby" and branded his wife, Maria Kaczynska, a "witch" who should be put down.

"You can't judge a person from just one statement, or on the basis of some lack of tact," said Archbishop Michalik at the bishops' plenary at the Jasna Gora national shrine. " There's no one single way of resolving the problem."

However, Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski of Gdansk told Poland's daily newspaper Dziennik that the station had caused "divisions and quarrels" and should have its future decided  by the Vatican if the Polish Church failed to settle disputes over its role. "Its director improperly engages in politics, and has made absolutely unacceptable statements about the president and his wife, as well as anti-Semitic commentaries," he said.

But Fr Rydzyk was vigorously defended by the Redemptorist order's Polish provincial, Fr Zdzislaw Klafka, who branded the tape-recording a "serious provocation and media manipulation", and insisted his media initiatives had been "created and supported by broad masses of countrymen". Meanwhile, prosecutors said last week that they had dropped the case after failing to find "legal indications that a crime was committed".