Catholic World News News Feature

Polish party operative probed weaknesses of bishops September 10, 2007

A Polish political operative has revealed that he investigated the personal weaknesses of Church leaders in an effort to gain leverage over the hierarchy.

In an interview for the Polish tabloid newspaper Super Express, a former member of the national parliament, Marian Curylo of the Self-Defense Party, alleged that his party’s leader, Andrzej Lepper, ordered party workers to find out the secrets of Poland’s Catholic hierarchy. “At the recommendation of Lepper, I met with the Church hierarchy and gathered information on its members," he said.

"In conversation, I was to investigate their weaknesses and needs,” Curylo recalled. The former parliamentarian confirmed that among others, he had met with Bishop Jan Styrna of Elblag and Archbishop of Henryk Muszynski of Gniezno.