An Unlikely Witness

The last leader of Communist Poland will testify before John Paul's beatification tribunal.... From ANSA:

Catholic Church officials researching John Paul II's life ahead of his widely expected beatification are to interview Poland's former communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski, a Polish daily said on Wednesday....

Gen.Jaruzelski will be asked about his memories of the pope as part of the information gathering which is the first phase of beatification procedures, the Rzeczpospolita daily reported .

The daily could give few other details. It asked the former leader to comment, but his only remark was: "How do you know that?" However, he did not deny the report.

Gen. Jaruzelski is not the only Polish political leader to be called upon to provide testimony in John Paul's beatification process. The head of the beatification 'tribunal' set up in Krakow last November, interviewed outgoing president Aleksander Kwasniewski in December.

Other sources report that Lech Walesa, a Wojtyla favorite, has also been called to testify.

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