Too little, too late
A furor erupted after Polish priests were accused of aiding the former communist security services (SB). As PiS has affirmed from every pulpit in the land, it is a central part of their agenda to seek out 'collaborators' and bring them to justice. But now, with the spotlight on PiS' great ally, the Catholic Church, the government's enthusiasm to name and shame the alleged collaborators seems to have wilted.
If PiS is consistent it will support publishing the names of the suspected priests. After all, the party supported publishing similar lists of journalists and politicians. The question remains as to what purpose its ongoing hunt for collaborators will serve, other than drag up quasi-communist dogs that many would prefer to let lie.
For most in Poland, communism ended 17 years and one day ago, and the early 1990s was the perfect opportunity to deal with those who had a history of collaboration. For many within the Polish political and business community, and indeed wider Polish society, the current prolonged 'lustration' process is a waste of time, and looks suspiciously like a clever way of bullying political enemies. Often these lists contain names of those who were only contacted by - not those who necessarily 'collaborated' with - the apparatus.
On the other side of the story, there are major advocates of the vetting process, such as Bronisław Wildstein, who is famous for making the list of secret services collaborators public, and Father Isakowicz-Zaleski, who recently wanted to reveal the names of priests who succumbed to the pressures of SB. For them, communism might belong to the past but it's certainly not moribund history. Wildstein's best friend, Stanisław Pyjas, was murdered by the secret services when still a student at Jagiellonian University and Zaleski himself, like many other members of the opposition, was badly beaten by SB on numerous occasions.
Making peace with the ghosts of the past is never easy. Many consider the vetting process as bringing justice to former agents, but when conducted in a haphazard, disorganized way it often targets the victims of the communist system. Indeed, the word 'collaboration' is so loaded with raw emotion that it makes objectivity in such matters all but impossible. In many cases, 'collaboration' was forced - people were broken down under constant pressure, blackmail or simply to protect family members. Sometimes, giving the secret service a few bits of seemingly insignificant information meant the difference between hardship and relative normalcy for them and their families, and it is difficult to take a hard stance on a few citizens passing on the most mundane of information 17 years after the event.
The longer the hunt for spies continues, the less likely it is to capture some big game, and in the case of minor individuals, it should be remembered that few of us are brave enough to risk our lives and livelihoods for our moral ideals - even priests.
