Eastern Europeans discuss clergy collaboration with communists

Published: 2007-01-29

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Many Eastern European church officials said they lack procedures for handling claims of clergy collaborating with communist secret police nearly 20 year after the collapse of communism. Father Laszlo Nemeth, secretary-general of the Hungarian bishops' conference, told Catholic News Service that although Hungarian bishops had debated the issue in the early 1990s the communist police archives are still closed to researchers. "We'd like to see government legislation on the use and interpretation of communist regime archives, but our MPs (members of Parliament) appear unready to pass a law which would allow objective research in this complex area," Father Nemeth said Jan. 25. "Some files and documents were destroyed and some fabricated. If we can't establish the truth from them, how can we properly screen our clergy?" The priest said most bishops consecrated under communist rule had now retired, and younger Catholic clergy were uninvolved.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .