Clerics & Communists: strange bedfellows:

...The church lost the monopoly of the anti-Communist opposition, and there are certainly clergymen who regret that the church was "reduced" to one of the factors in the process of democratization and liberalization...

...Trotsky, in exile, created a new organization, Father Poradowski continues, consisting exclusively of Jews (although, he adds, not all Jews are Trotskyites...

...The church can continue to exist and fulfill her mission only in a free pluralistic society- such a society is the only viable alternative to Communism...

...THE USES OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN POLAND Clerics & Communists: strange bedfellows MIECZYSLAW MANELI THE PILGRIMAGE of John Paul II to Poland evoked a charged political climate from the moment of its announcement...

...On the other side of the coin is the Communist party, which is more afraid of pluralism than of polarization...

...The Committee for the Defense of the Workers (KOR) endeavored, the lecturer said, "to start an uprising in Poland . . . KOR did not acknowledge this purpose openly, but this was their real desire...

...that a Jew, Kerensky (his Russian Orthodox confessor still lives in New York), is responsible for the overthrow of the legitimate Czarist government...

...and that true revolutionaries should take cognizance of this fact...

...The recent events once more show that there is a long distance between theoretical proclamations and a practical application of the new philosophy, and that Primate Glemp, supported by certain dignitaries in the Roman Curia, may be tempted to opt for polarization rather than a genuine pluralism of the Western type...

...According to him the revolution was prepared and the anarchy instigated by...

...it was "russophil" and directed against the rotten West, against atheists, liberals, Masons, revolutionaries, and Jews...

...It was unprecedented that millions participate en masse in religious services while simultaneously thinking of God, Caesar, and resistance to the powers that be...

...COINCIDING with the publication of Father Poradowski's article was a lecture delivered by Professor Piotr Taras on April 15, 1983, at the Polish Institute of Arts and Science, New York City...

...During his lecture, entitled "Church and Solidarity,'' Father Taras, professor at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, stated that the backbone of Solidarity is KOR, which consists of "Marxists, who are not Leninists, but Trotskyites...

...Aryan"- "they were connected with Jewishness through marriages . . ." (p...

...the Jews: "The creators and organizers of this group [KOR] were revolutionaries, atheists, and cosmopolitans, often Jews, or if they should have happened to be true Poles"- i.e...

...Later, during his Polish pilgrimage, the pope met with the lay Catholic editors of Znak ("Sign") and Tygodnik Powszechny ("Universal Weekly") in Krakow...

...But assessments of the immediate and potential results of the pope's trip to Poland remain as controversial as the discussions that had preceded it...

...Against the Polish nation...

...In the April-May-June 1983 issue of Duszpasterz Polski Zagranica ("The Polish Pastor Abroad"), there is an essay marking "The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Death of Karl Marx...

...The same ideology was presented by Giertych's Nationalist Party before World War I and World War II...

...One option is clear-cut polarization between the party-government, on the one hand, and the church, on the other...

...Jews, and especially Zionists, according to Kordeev, are the vanguard of counterrevolution...

...The well-known hesitation and reservations of Cardinal Wyszynski in August 1980 were never fully dispelled...

...THE CORE of the problem is the attitude of the church and the Communist government towards Solidarity...

...that the Jews Trotsky and Stalin (his Russian Orthodox seminary teachers might have been surprised) initiated the construction of the evil Soviet empire and that one should not be deceived by their historical feud...

...The question facing the Polish Catholic hierarchy is old, yet completely new: what would serve the interests of the church better...

...The emergence of Solidarity was a genuine victory for this alliance...

...Yet the opposition between the pope and these two priests' behavior involves even more than anti-Semitism...

...KOR, according to Father Taras, received money and technical facilities (Telex, printing machines) from abroad to further their ends...

...This fact creates well-founded suspicions that the arrested will be the scapegoats to be sacrificed on the altar of the attempts to normalize the relations between the church and General Jaruzelski...

...Be that as it may, it is certain that the theories of Fathers Poradowski and Taras coincide with the kind of Soviet anti-Semitism Moscow has regularly used to suppress liberal tendencies in Eastern-bloc nations...

...An Open Letter to the Polish Society in Poland (London, 1982...

...Everything indicates that it was a Polish political action...

...It is written by Father Michal Poradowski, professor at the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile...

...Thus, Father Poradowski has updated Hitler's explanation of the anti-Nazi wartime alliance between Moscow and Washington: simply stated, Jews rule in both capitals...

...On the other hand, certain elements in the church hierarchy believe that in such a direct confrontation against the Communist "focus of evil" they will preserve their rule of souls...

...The struggle of the Polish people, supported by the free world, is for freedom and democracy, not for the simple delivery of Poland to theocracy...

...The alternative option is pluralism...

...They must be enthusiastic about Poradowski's allegations that Solidarity, a trade union consisting of good, simple, decent Catholics, has been manipulated by the Michniks and led astray by the Jews...

...The Mafia directed by the KOR cared nothing about the welfare of the Polish nation or the workers...

...Lenin's dream was at long last brought to fruition- to the detriment of Leninism and Communist governments...

...It is obvious that the message of both of these priests directly contradicts the attitude of the pope...

...At the same time that Fathers Poradowski and Taras were unburdening themselves of anti-Semitic theories, John Paul II, in an April 13 general audience, was referring to the "martyrs" among the Jewish nation who "shared with us the terrible experience of the Hitlerite occupation...

...He continues: "The coup of December 13 was not a Soviet political decision...

...Anti-Semitism, however, as usual, serves as the smokescreen behind which more important interests converge...

...The emergence of Solidarity and of the free trade unions filled the vacuum between two sides...

...According to Father Poradowski, Joseph acquired the wealth of Egypt for his family although Pharoah remained the nominal ruler...

...The Trotskyite movement is kept alive thanks to the financial support of Jewish bankers on Wall Street...

...Those organizations are accused of being influenced by Trotskyites, who in turn are the agents of Wall Street, and so it goes...

...Although the release of the jailed activists was one of the preconditions of the pope's journey, the distinguished Polish journal published in Paris, Kultura, has noted (July-August 1983) that the demand for the release of these people has disappeared from recent statements made by the Primate, Cardinal Glemp...

...They are united, ostensibly, by anti-Semitism...

...This spring, a Soviet historian, Lev Kordeev, published a book in Moscow called The Class Essence of Zionism...

...I am glad that the introduction of the state of war was performed efficiently and almost painlessly" (p...

...Kultura also noted: "There is no reaction on the part of the ecclesiastical superiors of the Reverends Taras and Poradowski...

...Despite objections from the audience, Father Taras seemed determined to remain firm in his allegations...

...Father Poradowski's article is an updated version of the traditional accusations made against the Jews: they are the cause of the evils of both capitalism and Communism, they try to rule the world clandestinely and to exploit it- as did the Biblical Joseph...

...The question arises: against whom was the coup directed...

...The party realizes that KOR was able to accomplish the well-nigh impossible by forging an alliance between intellectuals and workers who jointly fought for freedom and democracy...

...WE now KNOW that the military junta started a war against atheists, cosmopolitans, Trotskyites, and Jews in defense of the Polish nation...

...in April Tygodnik Powszechny, long engaged in a campaign against all forms of anti-Semitism, had published an issue dedicated to the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising- one of the most memorable Catholic publications about the common heritage of Jews and Poles...

...Jedrzej Giertych, one of the oldest theorists and the political leader in the West of the Polish Nationalist Party (previously known as Natodowa Demokracjaor) published a pamphlet under the title, What Is to Be Done...

...In the spirit of Father Poradowski, Kordeev argues that the Jews have a special ability and inclination to exploit other nations...

...Poradowski maintains that Karl Marx and his Jewish friends are responsible for atheist and Communist ideology...

...It is quite evident, for example, that regardless of any promises the Polish government may have made to John Paul II, real change is still being evaded...

...Actually, the charge that Trotskyites are financed by Jewish capitalists originated with Stalinists in the thirties and was extensively used during the Moscow show trials...

...For them, too, the middlemen can only do harm...

...Some analysts of Vatican affairs surmise that there are elements in the Curia who would be willing to see anti-Semitic utterances in the pope's native language undermine the authority and good reputation John Paul II enjoys, particularly within the important American Jewish community...

...To that irony has been added another...

...31, emphasis added...

...They are mentally too weak to fight on many fronts, against many ideas and non-dogmatic approaches...

...The pope and the lower Polish clergymen, however, recognized that the greatest chance for the church exists in the tolerant, pluralistic society and not in a totalitarianism based on a bilateral pact between Caesar and the church...

...The Communists are confident that in an eye-to-eye confrontation their ideas have a better chance than church dogmas...

...In it he announced his support for the military dictatorship of General Jaruzelski: "Perhaps some of my readers will not like it, but I openly state that it is good that the coup d'etat of December 13 took place...

...Giertych's reply is "no...

...A group of Polish officers found that it was necessary to stop the developing anarchy and the approaching revolution and made a coup d'etat with the Polish forces and in the Polish interest" (p...

...Their trial is in preparation...

...The group of Catholic and lay intellectuals who organized KOR is considered especially dangerous by the Communist party and government, not only in Poland but in all other Communist capitals...

...During the past months, the party and government's campaign against KOR has been given an ideological assist from most unexpected quarters: traditional Polish right-wing leaders and certain elements of the Catholic church...

...Vatican II opted for freedom, tolerance, pluralism...

...But also central to the controversies following the pope's visit is the fate of KOR (Committee for the Defense of the Workers) whose leaders have been jailed...

...What is especially distressing about all these absurdities is that they were published by an organ connected with the Roman Curia and that the official purpose of this quarterly (whose editor-in-chief is a bishop) is to enlighten Polish clergymen abroad and to give them spiritual nourishment to be used in their daily pastoral duties...

...Today this thesis is repeated in Warsaw and in Moscow in the campaign against KOR and, by extension, against Solidarity...

...In fact, his chain of intimations not only linked secret papal funding of Solidarity with the bankruptcy of the Banco Ambrosiano and the London hanging of its president, but left one with the distinct impression that John Paul II should be held responsible for preparing a bloody Polish uprising...

...The Communists long for dogmatic simplicity and clarity...

...The lifting of martial law and granting partial amnesty were accompanied by changes in the Criminal Code which "legalize illegality...

...Father Poradowski's special discovery is that KOR is indeed a Jewish Trotskyite affair spearheaded by a Jewish family, the Michniks, who for conspiratorial reasons have assumed three different names...

...This is the foundation of Trotskyism: it is to continue with a permanent revolution" (p...

...Needless to say, the secret police in Warsaw- who, as KOR leader Adam Michnik writes from his prison cell, have had so many difficulties in finding any proof against him and his colleagues in KOR- now rejoice over the appearance of such an unsuspected ally...

...It may be, Giertych continued, that the Soviet government "gave some help to General Jaruzelski," but it was minimal and of secondary importance...

...Especially dangerous are Jewish Trotskyites who are agents of American imperialism symbolized by the financiers of Wall Street...

...they wanted an outbreak of a revolution...

...Do we not observe here an unprecedented alliance: the Soviet Communist establishment with the radical right-wingers, and certain clerical elements...

...According to Father Poradowski theirs was a struggle between an Ashkenazic Jew, Trotsky, and a Sephar-dic Jew, Stalin, since these two kinds of Jews dislike each other...

...With the approach of the trial of members of KOR and Solidarity, the endorsement of such a theory by Polish priest-professors points to a critical choice facing the Polish church...

...These preposterous ideas might not warrant attention had it not been for the fact that Giertych was supported by two respectable Catholic professors...

...Even money from Banco Ambrosiano was given to KOR and to Solidarity, according to Taras...