PolandObituaryCardinal Józef Glemp obituary
Leader of Poland's Roman Catholic church during the country's turbulent transition to democracyCardinal Józef Glemp, who has died aged 83, was head of the Roman Catholic church in Poland from 1981 until 2009, an era that saw the transition from communist to democratic rule in 1989 after many years of struggle by the church and the Solidarity trade union.
Problems dogged Glemp's ministry from the start. He was appointed primate and archbishop of Gniezno-Warsaw on the death of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, who had been in post since 1948. Wyszynski, a man with great moral authority, had seemed uniquely to embody Polish national aspirations. Any successor would have had a difficult time. Although Glemp had been close to him and had been his private secretary for 12 years (1967-79), the old man's charisma had not rubbed off on him. Small, timid and pious, Glemp was not an impressive figure. He had greatness thrust upon him, and the strain could be felt.
In 1981 Poland was undergoing the creative and hopeful turmoil of the Solidarity movement. Within six months of Glemp's appointment, martial law would be declared on the orders of the prime minister Wojciech Jaruzelski, and with it a brutal crackdown on Solidarity. From the outset, Glemp was less than sure-footed. He warned of the need to maintain "discipline" and "order", and saw himself as an honest broker between the two sides. But to some Catholics, he was simply playing the government's game, at the same time as being lukewarm towards every part of the Solidarity movement except the Polish farmers' union.
The imposition of martial law seemed to vindicate Glemp's cautious policy. He deplored police violence and pleaded for political prisoners to be released, but appeared to accept Jaruzelski's thesis that it had been necessary to impose military rule in order to avoid a Soviet invasion. It seemed like a discreditable form of "realism", but one practised by Catholic leaders in other parts of eastern Europe.
Poland, though, was different. Glemp's other big problem was simply that, from the time of his appointment until 2005, there was a Polish pope – John Paul II – to whom he constantly deferred. So the impression was created that the pope was the real ruler of the church in Poland, while Glemp was merely his local agent. Glemp's situation was made even worse because, while the pope on his world stage was free to make more heroic and challenging statements about Poland, Glemp, being nearer the Polish authorities, was cast in a more prudent role. This lost him the support of many priests.
He was criticised at a meeting of clergy early in 1982. They passed what in effect was a vote of no confidence in their primate. This was an astonishing turn of events; any cleric who had been so unwise as to challenge Wyszynski would have soon found himself relegated to a remote country parish.
Glemp tried to do just that in the case of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, an outspoken champion of Solidarity, but was blocked. In October 1984 the young priest was murdered by government agents, but Glemp could manage only to urge of a "spirit of Christian acceptance" in the wake of the death. It was one of many misjudgments. In 2010 Popiełuszko the martyr was beatified in Rome by Pope Benedict XVI.
Glemp was born in Inowrocław, about 140 miles west of Warsaw. His father worked in the salt mines, and died early as a result. During the Nazi occupation, Glemp was requisitioned for farm work. Ordained a priest in 1956, he was sent to Rome in 1968 to study canon law. His demeanour remained ever after that of a careful lawyer, weighing the balance of probabilities, rather than the prophetic churchman that Poles might have taken to their hearts.
After a long stint as Wyszynski's secretary, he was appointed bishop of Warmia in 1979, no doubt to prepare him for the succession as primate in 1981, and he was created a cardinal in 1983. Much of his energy in the early 80s was devoted to making possible Pope John Paul's second visit to Poland. The first, in June 1979, had been a triumph. The second, in June 1983, was a more restrained and sober affair. Though some Solidarity banners were unfurled and the pope occasionally used its terminology, the meetings did not become political rallies.
At the same time the pope also tried, not very successfully, to build up Glemp as a world figure by sending him on missions. In 1984 he visited Polish communities in Latin America. In a newspaper interview in São Paulo, Brazil, he remarked that Solidarity was "a bag containing many things, including oppositions Marxists, Trotskyites and later on careerists and party members". To many, again, this was too close to the Jaruzelski line and vocabulary for comfort.
When the pope made a third visit to Poland in 1987, he repeatedly spoke with approval of Solidarity, gave an audience to its leader Lech Wałesa, and visited the grave of Popiełuszko. By his next visit, in 1991, John Paul found a country transformed (and Wałesa in office as president).
In the new Poland, Glemp urged the creation of a Catholic political party, on the lines of the Christian Democrat movement elsewhere in Europe, but generated little enthusiasm. Instead he ended up ever more isolated from successive Polish governments after losing battles over the place of Catholic teaching and symbols in schools. His deeper disappointment – shared with John Paul II – was that his fellow countrymen so quickly turned their backs on Catholic teaching with the arrival of capitalism and consumerism.
Glemp also struggled and failed to counter repeated suggestions that he was antisemitic. These made international headlines in the late 1980s with plans to establish a small Catholic convent next to the former death camp at Auschwitz. Although the approval of Jewish leaders was sought and achieved, many saw the presence of the convent as a Catholic intrusion on a Jewish sacred site. Glemp's rough dismissal of their fears, in foolishly intemperate language, caused profound offence.
He suffered latterly from ill-health, but although there were rumours that he would take early retirement, he continued as archbishop of Gniezno-Warsaw until 2006 (and primate until 2009). Despite Glemp's enthusiastic support, his successor, Stanisław Wielgus, lasted only two days in office. After his links to communist-era secret police were revealed, he was forced to resign. It looked for all the world like another Glemp blunder.
Józef Glemp, priest, born 18 December 1929; died 23 January 2013
Peter Hebblethwaite died in 1994
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