Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Polish Historian Reveals John Paul II was Spied on by the Priests Closest to Him
La Stampa-Vatican Insider ^ | 5/29/12 | Andrea Tornielli

Posted on 05/30/2012 6:42:02 AM PDT by marshmallow

Lasota's book "Karol Wojtyla spiato" (Spying on Karol Wojtyla) is available in Italian and can be purchased exclusively online

The extent to which the communist secret police controlled Karol Wojtyla’s actions was incredible…” Marek Lasota who was born in 1960 and has a degree in Polish philosophy, with a specialism in history, lives among mounds of letters accumulated by the communist regime and kept in the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), where he is head of the Krakow section. After years of patient research, he has gathered a number of reports and dossiers on Wojtyla. Lasota’s “Karol Wojtyla spiato” (Spying on Karol Wojtyla), published by Intercienze, comes out in Italian in just a few days. The book is a collection of the regime’s secret documents on the pope who passed away in 2005.In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa the scholar also revealed the names of some collaborationist priests whom he mentions in the book.

“During the communist era, authorities saw all priests as enemies of the people and the party – Lasota explains – and they were placed under surveillance by the political police, the “Bezpieca”. Wojtyla had been under surveillance since 1946. This intensified in 1958 when he became Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. As an archbishop in the ‘60s, he was considered a dangerous political opponent. This is why he was ferociously monitored in everything he did.”

One of the documents presented in the book is particularly striking. It contains 98 questions which spies who kept an eye on the future pope had to answer: attention was paid to every minute detail of his daily life. From the time at which he got up in the morning to his morning activities and the order in which these took place; from how frequently he shaved to the “cosmetics” he....

(Excerpt) Read more at vaticaninsider.lastampa.it ...


TOPICS: Catholic; General Discusssion; History; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 05/30/2012 6:42:10 AM PDT by marshmallow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: marshmallow
The extent to which the communist secret police controlled Karol Wojtyla’s actions was incredible…”

Hopefully just a bad translation. The rest of the article gave examples of how he was watched by the communists, but nothing about any type of control.

2 posted on 05/30/2012 6:59:51 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (You only have three billion heartbeats in a lifetime.How many does the government claim as its own?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio

I think the word “controlled” should be replaced by the word “documented”.


3 posted on 05/30/2012 7:04:32 AM PDT by marshmallow (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

When East Germany went out of business and the archives of the Stasi were thrown open, large numbers of people were stunned to discover that those closest to them....spouses, children, close friends and family....had been spying and informing on them for years.

This IS what Communism IS. It’s what it does.
Our electorate had better wake up and get that fact.


4 posted on 05/30/2012 7:21:22 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow
Out of the sea of documents, reports and dossiers on Wojtyla, he came out completely clean. He could not be blackmailed, manipulated or influenced. The communist police’s check-up newspaper therefore confirmed that cardinals made the right choice during the 1978 conclave.

Great man. I converted to Catholicism because of his inspiration and my Marxist aunt and uncle left and joined the Unitarians because of him.


5 posted on 05/30/2012 7:27:52 AM PDT by Donald Rumsfeld Fan ( I am Breitbart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio

Comptroller. One meaning of “control” is to watch over, monitor, keep records of. Modern German uses this sense of Kontrollieren very frequently. Perhaps Polish does as well (or whatever language this was translated from). That use of “control” survives in “comptroller” in English. The state comptroller does not “control” the finances of the state in the way we use the word “control”—the legislature does. But the “comptroller” controls by being the one in charge of the books, rendering accounts etc.


6 posted on 05/30/2012 8:43:49 AM PDT by Houghton M. (t)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio

A bad translation is very plausible, if the original word would best have been translated as “monitored.”

“Monitored” has an ambiguous definition. It means either “observed” or “controlled.”


7 posted on 05/30/2012 9:11:12 AM PDT by Erasmus (BHO: New supreme leader of the homey rollin' empire.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: marshmallow

I feel uniquely honored to have been able to live during the pontificate of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

What a witness to history we have had. Such a great man. God blessed the world when we saw the rise of Pope JP II along with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.


8 posted on 05/30/2012 7:51:11 PM PDT by Gumdrop
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gumdrop

“I feel uniquely honored to have been able to live during the pontificate of Blessed Pope John Paul II.”

I am not a Catholic, but so do I. He absolutely nailed the rot within contemporary Western civilization with his dissection of the “culture of death” in the Evangelium Vitae. Brilliant, true, effective and noble. He was (is!) a magnificent servant of Christ.


9 posted on 05/31/2012 3:55:05 PM PDT by Psalm 144 ("I'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am." - Willard M Romney)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson