Anti-clerical weekly
debuts
By JONATHAN LUXMOORE
Special to the National Catholic
Reporter Warsaw
When a glossy weekly makes its debut on Polands newsstands
this month, its guaranteed to raise some eyebrows. Its 33-year-old
editor, Roman Kotlinski, promises Fakty i Mity (Facts and Myths)
will be anti-clerical and full of scandals.
That will be quite a calling card in this predominantly Catholic
country.
When Kotlinski, a former priest, set up Polands first
association for married ex-clergy 16 months ago, he said he intended to be a
thorn in the side of pope and church.
Today, he admits hes disappointed by the weak public
response but is determined to save the church from its doctrinal
errors and accumulated evils.
The church here still has roots in the Middle Ages -- and if
the hierarchy had their way, theyd gladly turn the clock back 500
years, Kotlinski told NCR.
Ordained in 1993 in Polands central Lodz archdiocese,
Kotlinski quit the priesthood just a few months later after obtaining no
response to his complaints from the local curia.
He married a widow with a son, and the two later had a son.
Meanwhile, he published his experiences in a book, I Was a Priest, which
he says sold 120,000 copies. In November 1998, he announced he was forming an
association -- For Renewal of the Roman Catholic Church on behalf of
People Harmed by Clergy.
Kotlinski said hed been deluged with letters from clergy
with families, and from women seduced and abandoned by priests. He pledged to
launch legal advice centers around the country to show the church it
faces major opposition.
The Polish church is ruled by money, self-obsession, the
pursuit of power and property, the ex-priest told gaping journalists.
This is the first critical voice from the homeland of the
pope which seeks to expose this evil and bring about deep reforms. We must find
a new understanding of papal infallibility and tidy up the churchs
senseless, undiscussable dogmas.
Though often criticized for conservatism and closeness to
politics, the Polish church had rarely faced public dissent of this order. Its
reaction was swift.
The Catholic Information Agency, KAI, said Kotlinski had
betrayed confessional secrets and been forced to leave the
priesthood after fathering a child.
Meanwhile, his factual claims were branded lying and
resentful by the Lodz archdiocese, which said it had shown
trust by allowing Kotlinski to be ordained after he was expelled from a
seminary in neighboring Wloclawek.
A careful observer will easily see how he paints his own
portrait, and that his only motive is a desire to drown his own complexes and
make money, the statement added.
It is the drama of a person who tries through aggression and
untruthfulness to stifle his own guilt at his failed priesthood. It is a drama
made greater by the fact that he spits on former colleagues and harms his own
kin. This is how his children will one day see him.
Kotlinski admits hes dissatisfied that his association
numbers only 200, and has been too dispersed around Poland to muster more than
a single conference. But hes proud that three married ex-priests have
joined and is determined to battle on.
He estimates there could be 10,000 former priests of all ages in
Poland (church officials strongly reject that estimate). While most of the
countrys 30,000 active Catholic clergy live a life of wealth and
privilege, he said, 10 percent are gays, and a quarter have extra-marital
liaisons.
Among current cases, Kotlinski said hes helping a Polish
priest from London, Marek Sojkowski, sue the Wloclawek diocese for a house
owned by his late father, who was also a priest. Kotlinski said he is also
representing a member of the Jehovahs Witnesses whose child was bullied
and humiliated by a priest at school.
Meanwhile, having made his international debut at a January
meeting of the European Church on the Move Network, which he says devoted a
whole day to his work, hes gained pledges of committed
support from the Netherlands and the United States. He also claims to
have had expressions of interest from dissident figureheads such as liberal
Swiss theologian Hans Küng and progressive German theologian and
psychotherapist Eugen Drewermann.
Kotlinskis campaign comes at a sensitive time for the
Catholic church in Poland, when efforts are continuing to adjust to the
countrys radically changed post-communist conditions.
Though recruitment to womens orders has slumped,
theres been no evidence of a fall in church attendance. The churchs
clergy increased by 14 percent in the 1990s, and its 7,000 seminarians make up
a quarter of Europes total. However, the churchs practical record
has been challenged in areas ranging from womens rights to
anti-Semitism.
In 1999, a national synod, convened to implement Vatican II,
warned priests to stay poor and steer clear of politics. It also called for
full transparency in finances, and urged parishes and dioceses to
obey Canon Law by handing greater responsibilities to laypeople.
Kotlinski dismisses the resulting talk of reforms as cosmetic.
He believes obligatory celibacy contradicts nature and the
gospel, while abortion and contraception arent written about in the
Bible and should not be taboo subjects.
All theyre doing is powdering over the churchs
ugly face to make it look friendlier and forestall a mass exodus. But the
church doesnt need renewing -- it needs total rebuilding, Kotlinski
said.
The Wloclawek diocese wont discuss the case of Marek
Sojkowski and says his court case would have been dismissed long
ago if not for Kotlinskis bad will.
Meanwhile, the Jesuit spokesman for Polands bishops
conference, Fr. Adam Szulc, told NCR that Kotlinskis salacious
clergy statistics were garbage, and declined to voice any opinion
about his activities.
Asked about the position of ex-priests in Poland, the head of the
churchs concordat commission, Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, said
fellow-prelates tried to ensure that they maintained contact, but conceded most
had refused help or care, creating a serious
problem.
However, Kotlinskis figure of 10,000 was merely
disorientating public opinion, Pieronek said.
Leaving the priesthood hasnt been a mass occurrence
here, the bishop told the KAI agency. At most, one can speak of 600
to 700 cases in the last 10 to 20 years, meaning an average of no more than 20
per diocese.
Undeterred, Kotlinski insists hell press on. Hes now
in a vacuum, he says, having given up practicing as a Catholic, and
prefers to pray with those closest, as Jesus taught us, in the quietness
of home.
I can only hope to make a crack in the wall, while waiting
for a new generation with freer thoughts and more open consciences to force the
church to rebuild itself, Kotlinski said.
Perhaps when the pope is no longer around, the hardliners
wont be so powerful here. But while such stupid dogmas and rules exist,
theres really nothing to talk about.
National Catholic Reporter, March 24,
2000
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