Bishop, Pawn

"Social origins?" asked the court chairman. "Son of a miller," came the halting, hesitant reply. "Does the defendant plead guilty?" "Yes," said the same slow, careful voice. It paused, then went on: "I confess ... I repent . . ."

Once again the voice of a zombie was heard in a Communist courtroom and on radio sets across Europe last week. This time, the voice belonged to Czelaw Kaczmarek, for eleven years bishop of Kielce, who went on trial in Warsaw with three other priests and a nun for "espionage, anti-state propaganda and diversionary activities." The Communists had kept him two years in prison to teach him his lines. Yes, said the dead, obedient voice, he had worked secretly with the Nazis during the occupation to keep the people "meek and cooperative." He had helped American officials to "prepare a new war." Ex-U.S. Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane had paid him off for his espionage with a gold fountain pen and large sums of money.

But the chief villain in the grim playscript was the Vatican. Hour after hour, from a sheaf of notes clutched in his hand, Bishop Kaczmarek, 58, recited indictments of the Catholic hierarchy. "It must be known," he said, "that the Vatican has always been leading an anti-Polish policy." It was hoping to "hand back our territories to Germany" in return for Germany's help in a war against Communism.

After four days, the farce ended. The judges retired to deliberate the evidence and decide on its punishment for the bishop who had become a pawn in the Communists' effort to cow Polish church leaders and cut them off from the most Catholic of populations (96%) in any country behind the Iron Curtain.

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