Lustration and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland

Abstract

This chapter analyses the attempted lustration of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. It links the belated vetting of the Catholic clergy to the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, the lustration drive of the Law and Justice Party government in 2005–2007, and responses to the paedophilia scandals within the Polish church. Focusing on the lustration cases of Reverend Michal Czajkowski, Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, and Father Henryk Jankowski, the chapter pays attention to different currents within the Catholic community in Poland and the politicization and inconsistencies of de-communization mechanisms. It argues that while the nominally pro-Catholic PiS launched the lustration of the church, it soon abandoned it due to contemporary political concerns. The chapter also suggests that paedophilia affairs obliterated the hunt for communist security agents among the clergy.