Nycz: SB-Resistant, Ratzi-Tested, Dziwisz-Approved

Named on Saturday, Archbishop-elect Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw will be installed on 25 March, Annunciation Day, in the city's St John's Cathedral.

This time, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow -- the late John Paul II's private secretary of four decades -- has voiced his unabashed pleasure at the appointment of the former auxiliary of Wojtyla's homebase to Poland's premier ecclesiastical post, telling the state broadcaster that, not only is he grateful to Benedict XVI for picking Nycz, but that "the whole nation rejoices" at the selection.

And the Krakow priest who's made his name looking into church collaboration in the time of the Communist regime has added his voice to the chorus....

Fr. Isakowicz - Zaleski, author of a major publication on the Catholic Church in the times of communist regime in Poland said that the new nominee has an exemplary past of heroic opposition to the temptations of collaboration with communists. According to the communist secret services documents, archbishop Nycz was approached by communist functionaries numerous times and pressured to become a secret spy, but had the courage to say "no".

PHOTO: AFP

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