Polish cardinal says he is five years older than Vatican records

Published: 2005-02-09

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- A Lithuanian-born Polish cardinal acknowledged he was five years older than Vatican records and thus will not be eligible to vote in a conclave to elect the next pope. Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz, retired archbishop of Wroclaw, Poland, said his identification papers were changed in 1942 to save him from deportation as a forced laborer to Nazi Germany. He said he was born in 1923, not 1928, as Vatican records indicate. "The Holy Father was informed about everything before he became pope," the cardinal said. "Church law states that a cardinal has a right to take part in the conclave below the age of 80," the cardinal told the Polish Catholic news agency, KAI. "If I went to the conclave, it would be invalid." The Vatican's Annuario, or yearbook, gives Cardinal Gulbinowicz's date of birth as Oct. 17, 1928, and says he was ordained a priest, at just 21, June 18, 1950. Born at Sukiskes in Polish-ruled western Lithuania, he was appointed archbishop of Wroclaw Jan. 3, 1976, and made a cardinal on May 23, 1985. The cardinal retired as head of the Wroclaw Archdiocese April 24, 2004, and was succeeded by Archbishop Marian Golebiewski. Under canon law, bishops must submit their resignations at age 75. The Wroclaw chancellor, Father Leon Czaja, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview Feb. 7 that Cardinal Gulbinowicz had offered his resignation in 1998, when he reached 75, but Pope John Paul had asked him to remain in office. He added that the archdiocese would not change its official data on the cardinal until it received alternative documentation.

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