Polish priest set for sainthood criticized for anti-Semitism

WARSAW, Poland — Pope Francis’ decision to move the World War II-era head of Poland’s Catholic Church a step closer to possible sainthood has hit a stumbling block, with two leading Jewish organizations and even Polish Catholic publications calling him out for anti-Semitic views.

Cardinal August Hlond, born July 5, 1881, was the highest-ranking church official in Poland from 1926 to his death in 1948. He is highly respected in this overwhelmingly Catholic country for having rejected Nazi Germany’s proposals for a collaborative government, and for protecting the church’s independence during the first years of communism.

In its protest, the American Jewish Committee points to a passage in a 1936 pastoral letter by Hlond, who was Poland’s primate then, that showed his attitude toward Jews and echoed the general line of the Catholic Church of the time.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Nazi-hunting body, says making Hlond a saint would “further embolden” Poland’s right-wing government in its “headlong efforts to selectively rewrite Polish activities from that tragic era.”

The disputed passage in Hlond’s letter reads: “It is a fact that the Jews are fighting against the Catholic Church, persisting in free thinking, and are the vanguard of godlessness, Bolshevism and subversion.”

— AP