Future Pope John Paul II concealed pedophile cases in Poland, according to a journalistic investigation

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was aware of child crime cases in the Polish Church before he was elected Pope John Paul II in 1978. This is revealed by a journalistic investigation presented on Sunday March 5, testimonies to the support, by the private Polish television station TVN. While he was cardinal and bishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla transferred from one parish to another the priests of his diocese, accused of acts of pedocrime, to avoid scandal, according to the author of the investigation, Michal Gutowski.

One of the priests was sent by the future pope to Austria. Cardinal Wojtyla, in this case, wrote a letter of recommendation to Cardinal Franz König of Vienna, without informing him of the charges against the priest. As part of the investigation, the journalist met victims of pedophile priests, their relatives, as well as former employees of the diocese. He also cites documents from the former communist SB secret police and rare Church documents to which he was able to access. The diocese of Krakow denied him access to its archives, according to the journalist.

“He said he would take care of it”

Wishing to remain anonymous, a witness confirmed having personally reported to Cardinal Wojtyla the pedophile acts of a priest in 1973. “Wojtyla first wanted to make sure it wasn’t a bluff. He asked not to report it anywhere, he said he would take care of it”said this man, adding that the cardinal had explicitly asked him if the matter could remain covered up.

“What you have discovered is groundbreaking because it shows what many people have suspected for years, that John Paul II knew this problem existed even before he became pope.“said Thomas Doyle, a former American Catholic priest, canon law scholar and author of one of the first reports of Catholic clergy abuse in the United States, in the report. “He had to know but there was no proof. And here we have proof”he noted.