Polish group urges church to close alleged anti-Semitic bookstore

Published: 2003-12-16

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Prominent Polish Catholics are urging church leaders to close a bookstore located in a Warsaw church because it allegedly sells anti-Semitic literature. "We cannot understand why hate propaganda is allowed on church premises," said a statement by the group, which includes former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and editors of Poland's four leading Catholic journals. "We are scandalized that a presence is permitted that can be viewed as church approval for what is being propagated," the statement said. The group voiced their complaints in an open letter to Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Warsaw that was published Dec. 3 in Poland's mass-circulation Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The group said the Antyk bookstore located in Warsaw's All Saints Church was selling "books inciting anti-Semitism and spreading hatred." Cardinal Glemp said he would not intervene in the controversy.

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