Former Polish communist regime official fined for insulting late pope

Published: 2006-03-13

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Poland's former communist regime spokesman has been fined for insulting Pope John Paul II in a 2002 newspaper article, in the first binding court judgment of its kind. In a March 7 ruling, the Warsaw Appeal Court rejected a claim by former spokesman Jerzy Urban that he acted "within the bounds of free criticism" in writing the article, in which he described the late pope as a "hoary idol" and "living corpse." The court said Polish law did not permit free speech to be cited for "violating the honor of public figures." Urban, who gained notoriety in the 1980s as spokesman for the regime of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, published the front-page article, "Mobile Sado-Masochist," in his satirical weekly, Nie (No), on the first day of Pope John Paul's August 2002 visit; he urged the then 82-year-old to "die and save us all embarrassment." In his article, the spokesman urged "all sensible people" to write to the pope, advising him to "go to bed" and "stop making a scary spectacle of himself."

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