So that a victim would not fall victim again
Fr. IRENEUSZ SKUBIŚ
I read the document of the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) concerning Fr Konrad Hejmo, OP. The Institute definitely claims that Fr Konrad was security service SB agent. However, the document first of all presents the procedures and methods the security services used. Their procedures were thoroughly prepared, aiming at depraving people so that they became collaborators of the Communist services. The workers of the secret police - and they were numerous - acted in a systematic and well-thought-out way. They talked over all matters referring to leading those who declared to collaborate, and they were paid for that - these were full time jobs. Today they receive high retirement pensions for this human injustice. The IPN report mentioned the retirement pension of Mr Glowacki who 'led' Fr Konrad... These people are well off and nowadays the poor and ill-treated society provides for them as it did before.
It would be good if the Institute in the first place dealt with those who were main culprits, who kept coming to Fr Hejmo, who eavesdropped phone calls, who used blackmail, who suddenly came to work places and homes. The victims did not only fear for their fate but also for their families, co-workers and acquaintances. One does not speak about this today. I would ask our wise and penetrating journalists to notice that the main culprit is someone else here.
At the moment I cannot give my opinion about what people say about Fr Konrad. First of all, he has the right to defense himself because he is lynched, slandered and his words have not been taken into consideration so far. In fact, the report with its documentation about the so-called 'method of leading Fr. Hejmo' contains information about matters, which were rather well known in those days.
Let us notice one thing: there were so many people who were vetted and then found guilty of collaboration and yet they still hold high posts in the state hierarchy. Has their full documentation been published and is available in the Internet as it is in the case of that priest? Has this not been done because he is a Polish priest and he does not know how to defend himself, perhaps he has no defense attorneys and that's why one can brutally destroy him and even make him a man guilty of high treason?
So I think that one should make an honest revision of everything that has been written and spoken about Fr Konrad. It is a matter of basic justice in order not to harm a man for the second time, so that a victim would not fall victim to slander again. One should see that there are real executioners. It would not be good if another executioner were the journalists' world, which so easily casts aspersions on a man, especially when he is a Catholic priest. We need objective journalism that would show a true face of the world.
Today young journalists are not aware of the conditions Polish priests lived in 1950s, 60s, 70s and even 80s, how they were kept under surveillance and questioned, and they look at this as something that is easy to judge. Whereas in those days one did not know about many things like we know today. It took extreme courage to oppose the so-called 'sad gentlemen' who had all possibilities to destroy people. Let a contemporary journalist imagine himself in a situation when he is blackmailed, terrorized, kept questioning for several hours or when he must live without anyone to trust because what is natural in ordinary human life: sincerity, trust, openness, all of this could be used against him like it was in the case of Fr Konrad.
Nowadays the media have great power and far reaching influence, and they can 'peck', destroy a man. But the responsibility of conscience is always the same. Therefore, one should consider reality as a whole, notice all facts and their circumstances, and only then form a judgment. The IPN document concerning Fr Konrad Hejmo is indeed shocking, especially in the sphere which shows the methods of the security services - their ways and techniques of this dishonourable work, the finances they had at their disposal and the range of their influence, not only in our country but also abroad.
P.S.
This text was written just after the IPN report was had been published and before the statements of Fr Konrad Hejmo and Peter Rainy appeared.
"Niedziela" 25/2005