IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TADEUSZ ISAKOWICZ-ZALESKI
by Micha³Pakulniewicz

Warsaw Business Journal , Poland
June 5 2006

Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, a Polish-Armenian, has in the last
months sparked a row on vetting in the Catholic Church.

The church, which played a significant role in battling communism and
preserving traditional and national values both during the partitions
of Poland and in the communist era, has so far been untouchable when
it came to vetting and disclosing former collaborators with the secret
police, the SB.

Isakowicz-Zaleski was a member of student movements in Krakow in the
late 1970s and a Solidarity priest in Krakow’s Nowa Huta district in
the 1980s. He was harassed by the communist state for his activities.

He initiated the current debate on the church’s past in February this
year when he received his SB file from the Institute of National
Remembrance (IPN) and revealed the names of some of those who had
informed on him.

Since February, Isakowicz-Zaleski has been researching the church’s
role in communism and tried to get church officials to help him take
a stand on the issue of priests collaborating with the SB. Receiving
no answer from the church, he decided to reveal the results of his
research independently. However, last week the Archbishop of Krakow,
Cardinal Stanis³aw Dziwisz forbade him to go public, and instead
established the church’s own commission to deal with the issue.

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