Warsaw, Poland
AP
The Vatican said Monday that it is punishing a retired Polish archbishop and a bishop for their alleged roles in covering up sexual abuse committed by other clergymen.
Former Gdansk Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz and former Bishop Edward Janiak of Kalisz have also been forbidden from living in their former dioceses or participating in any public religious celebrations there.
POPE GRANTS GERMAN ARCHBISHOP FAULTED OVER ABUSE ‘TIME OUT’
Pope Francis has granted a “time out” to a German archbishop who offered his resignation after being faulted for his handling of allegations of sexual abuse in his previous diocese, church authorities said Monday.
Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse’s offer on 18th March followed the release of a report commissioned by his counterpart in Cologne which found 75 cases in which high-ranking officials neglected their duties in such cases. They were criticised, for example, for failing to follow up on or report cases of abuse, not sanctioning perpetrators or not caring for victims.
Hesse, previously a senior official in the Cologne archdiocese, was faulted for 11 cases of neglecting his duty. He conceded that he had made “mistakes” in the past, and said he very much regretted if he caused new suffering to victims or their relatives “through my action or omission”.
“I never participated in cover-ups,” he said. “I am nevertheless prepared to carry my part of the responsibility for the failure of the system.”
Hesse said he was offering his resignation to the Pope and asking him to relieve him of his duties immediately “to prevent damage to the office of the archbishop and to the Hamburg archdiocese”.
On Monday, the archdiocese said Francis has now sent Hesse an “initial reply”. It said in a brief statement that the Vatican says the pontiff “has granted a time out” to the Archbishop, but didn’t specify its length. In his absence, vicar-general Ansgar Thim will oversee the administration of the archdiocese, it added.
– AP
The Vatican Embassy in predominantly Roman Catholic Poland also said each of the two is being required to contribute personal money into a fund helping victims of clerical abuse.
The embassy cited “omissions” by Glodz “in cases of sexual abuse committed by some clergy against minors, and other issues related to the administration of the archdiocese.”
In a separate statement, the embassy said the Holy See was acting on the basis of “reported negligence of Bishop Edward Janiak in cases of sexual abuse committed by some clergy against minors, and other issues related to the management of the diocese.”
Both Glodz and Janiak retired last year as their cases were being investigated.
Glodz was featured in a 2019 documentary about priestly sex abuse and cover-up in Poland that sparked a reckoning in the country.
In the film, Tell No One, Glodz is shown eulogizing a known pedophile priest, the Rev. Franciszek Cybula, the personal chaplain to Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, at his funeral despite allegedly knowing of his abuse.
A second 2020 film by the same producers, Playing Hide and Seek exposed two cases of alleged paedophile priests that Janiak handled, first as auxiliary bishop of Wroclaw and then as bishop of Kalisz, a position he held since 2012.
People who said they had suffered abuse also included Glodz in a report identifying two dozen serving and retired Polish bishops accused of protecting predator priests.
The report was delivered to Francis on the eve of his 2019 global abuse prevention summit at the Vatican.
