Archbishop Was Allegedly Agent

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia - A Roman Catholic archbishop was listed as an agent for the former communist-era secret service, according to an official from a government institute that is making the service's files public.

Jan Sokol, now the head of the Bratislava-Trnava archdiocese, was registered by the secret service as an agent in the spring of 1989, just months before he was appointed archbishop in then-communist Czechoslovakia, Miroslav Lehky of the Institute of the National Memory said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Prior to that, the service had marked Sokol as a "candidate for cooperation" for many years, Lehky said.

Sokol's office issued a statement Thursday, saying the archbishop was disturbed by the allegations that he was involved with the secret service.

"It is an attempt to damage the trust in the church, which during the years of the communist dominance managed to stand on the side of truth despite great sacrifices," the statement said.

Lehky said the files covering the western part of Slovakia and the capital, Bratislava — including the one on Sokol — will be released to the public within months. He said the list of the service's cooperators "was trustworthy."

He added that only additional research would reveal more details about the alleged cooperation.

Under communism, which ended in late 1989, Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia. The country split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

In its Thursday edition, newspaper Sme reported that the head of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, Metropolitan Nikolaj, was also listed as an agent for the service in files which have already been released.

He was registered as an agent in 1984, Sme reported without giving details on his alleged cooperation. The church would not comment on the issue.

The institute started to release files of agents of the former communist secret police as well as citizens who were persecuted in Slovakia, a predominantly Roman Catholic country, last November.

The greatest enemy of Communism has traditionally been the Catholic Church, and it makes perfect sense that they would infiltrate the Church to one day change the official stance against Communism. Throughout the 1930's the Vatican viewed Russia and Communism to be as dangerous to mankind as Germany and the Nazis. This official stance was held right through the papacy of Pope Pius XII, or to 1958.

A most interesting book on this subject, "The School of Darnkess", (now out of print), was written by Bella Dodd. She was a former high ranking Communist in the American communist party, and a recruiter as well. She eventually converted back to the Catholic Church and exposed what she knew about Communist infiltration of the Church in this book and in various speaking engagements. Unfortunately, she was largely ignored.

Below is an excerpt of Bella Dodd's extraordinary expose I found on a web site.

The affidavit affirms that Communist Party organizer and high Party official, Bella Dodd, made public statements during the decade of the 1960s declaring that the Catholic priesthood was infiltrated by numerous Communist agents, whose mission was "to destroy the Catholic Church from within."

Dodd later returned to the Catholic Church and published a book about her experiences, entitled School of Darkness (out of print at present).

"In the late 1920's and 1930's, directives were sent from Moscow to all Communist Party organizations. In order to destroy the Catholic Church from within, party members were to be planted in seminaries and within diocesan organizations," Dodd stated according to the affidavit.

"I, myself, put some 1,200 men in Catholic seminaries," Dodd publicly declared.

Dodd did not include these remarks concerning her activities directed against the Catholic Church in her book, which was first published in 1954, leading some to question whether the remarks were actually made.

In an exclusive interview with INA Today, (renowned) Catholic philosopher Dr. Alice von Hildebrand confirmed that Dodd had made the remarks, and provided the affidavit from Paul and Johnine Leininger, who witnessed Dodd making the public statements.

When contacted by INA Today, Mrs. Johnine Leininger stated that there were others who could also verify that Dodd made the statements regarding infiltration into Catholic seminaries.

It's true. Another reference is Marie Carre, The Memoirs of an Anti Apostle (Tan, 1991). Pope John Paul II did not clean up the heretics in the US Catholic Church because he wisely focused on a major source of heretics: Soviet Marxism. Of course, JP II won that battle on December 1, 1989 when Gorbachev visited St. Peter's. Weigel writes, "The curtain had been run down on the drama of atheistic humanism... It was finished" (Witness to Hope 1999, p. 605).

There is no doubt that communists entered Catholic seminaries in the US. Example: Fr. Yanko Zagar from Croatia entered the Dominican seminary in California 1965 and started sending Catholic seminarians to Protestant classes. Why a foreigner quickly took responsibility of the education of seminarians is curious. When asked why he went to California, he said that he was sent there.

John Paul II has heroically done his job. He is a greater politician than Napolean and Lenin combined (in my humble opinion). Hopefully, the next pope will clean house in the US. Sadly, cleaning up the Jesuits will be super tough. They are full-blown lost.

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