A meeting with Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski was held on June 2 at Bolesławiec Town Hall. The Councilors’ Hall was filled to capacity. The “Gazeta Polska” columnist spoke, among other things, about his connections with our town. As it turned out, the priest’s grandmother’s sister lived in Bolesławiec for almost 50 years; she was a nun from the Congregation of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. The priest’s relative died four years ago. She was buried in the local cemetery.
Father Isakowicz-Zaleski is a priest of two rites: Roman Catholic and Armenian Catholic (which is why he must wear a beard). For 30 years, he has helped people with disabilities. His latest book, published under the clergyman’s name, “My Illegal Life,” is largely devoted to them.
The work takes the form of an extensive interview. It was created in cooperation with Wojciech Bonowicz, who told Isakowicz-Zaleski that he “would carry the label of a vetter for the rest of his life.” The subject of vetting was, of course, discussed during the meeting in the Councilors’ Hall. The clergyman stressed that in the dispute over vetting, “it is not about revenge, but about remembering the victims.” He referred to the widely discussed book about Lech Wałęsa being prepared by the Institute of National Remembrance, which, although it had not yet been published, had already aroused enormous controversy.
In Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski’s opinion, Wałęsa cooperated with the communist secret police for a period of time. The problem is that he does not want to admit it and apologize. The author of “Priests and the Security Service” cited two figures from the Gospel: Saint Peter and Judas. As he stressed, Saint Peter differed from the infamous biblical traitor in that he was able to admit his mistake and apologize. According to the clergyman, this is also the wisdom of Holy Scripture: “You must be able to say sincerely: I am sorry, I made a mistake.” For this reason, his favorite chapter in “Priests and the Security Service” is the one devoted to people who decided to break off their cooperation with the Security Service. “I consider them heroes,” the clergyman remarked.
At the meeting in Bolesławiec, the “Gazeta Polska” columnist said that he had been connected with the anti-communist opposition as early as his seminary years and that he was, in effect, “illegal” until 1990. He admitted that the issue of vetting had deeply divided the Church community. “For me, as a priest, speaking about this subject is very difficult,” he remarked. He added that “change is proceeding very slowly, but in the right direction.”
The clergyman also spoke about the absurdities of life in communist Poland. In his files, he found a Security Service report devoted to... a dog that had been given to him in the 1980s. “Today, if the dog were still alive, it would have the status of an injured party,” Father Isakowicz-Zaleski joked. The author of “Priests and the Security Service” wants to devote his latest book precisely to the absurdities contained in the files compiled by agents of the secret services of the Polish People’s Republic.
(GA report)