World - Polish court dismisses priest's case for damages with newspaper

National Catholic Reporter, March 26, 1999 by Matt Kantz

Polish court dismisses priest's lawsuit

A Polish court has dismissed an 80-year-old priest's claim for damages against a former communist newspaper for an article describing the pope as a "simpleton vicar."

Fr. Zdzislaw Peszkowski, who filed for damages, said the judgment signaled a "lost sense of justice" in Poland.

In a March 8 ruling, Warsaw's regional court said the Trybuna daily's Nov. 26, 1997, article had raised "serious ethical and aesthetic doubts." However, it added that these should be judged by a press association rather than a court of law. The court said the paper had already published two apologies, and it added that Pope John Paul II's authority was too great to be damaged by a single article.

Peszkowski told the Nasz Dziennik daily March 9, "This unfinished case shows one can insult the pope with impunity here, just a few months before his visit." Pope John Paul is scheduled to visit Poland June 5-17.

Peszkowski, who spent 40 years at the Polish seminary in Orchard Lake, Mich., after surviving the 1940 Soviet massacre of Polish Army officers at Katyn, demanded front-page apologies in Poland's four national dailies and on prime-time TV, as well as $30,000 for the church's Caritas charity. However, Trybuna's editors disputed his right to bring the case and said they would only consider paying damages if the pope personally sued.

Three nuns missing in Republic of Congo

Three nuns are missing in the Republic of Congo, where vandals have sacked Catholic religious communities, forcing more than half of them to close, the missionary news agency Fides said March 10.

Fr. Bernardo Cervellera, director of the agency operated by the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said a group of nuns had written to Fides from the Congo to report that violence against church property and staff has reached alarming proportions.

The letter said three nuns have disappeared from the Brazzaville diocese, 29 convents have been attacked and sacked and 49 of the 81 religious communities in the country have been forced to close their doors.

"The superiors of the religious orders and institutions are appealing to the country's authorities for dialogue to end the hostilities, guarantee human rights and allow the church to continue to operate in Congo," Cervellera said.

Pope, Iranian leader discuss relations

In an encounter that appeared to open new prospects for interreligious dialogue, Pope John Paul II met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and discussed how to improve relations between Christians and Muslims around the world.

"I consider this visit important and promising," the pope said in front of reporters after speaking with Khatami for 25 minutes in his private library March 11.

The black-robed Iranian leader told the pontiff he came from their meeting "full of hope for the future."

"The hope is for a final victory of monotheism, ethics and morality, together with peace and reconciliation. May God protect you," Khatami said. He said he prayed for the pope's "success and health," and asked the pope to pray for him, too.

The visit is the first by an Iranian president to the Vatican. Khatami, a religious scholar who is also chairman of the 55-nation Islamic Conference, has attempted to soften fundamentalist policies since his election as president in 1997, He has spoken positively about the values of Christianity -- a development that Vatican officials say bodes well not only for Iran's 13,000 Catholics but for Christian-Muslim relations around the world.

Bishop's death in Vietnam increases vacant dioceses

Bishop Joseph Marie Nguyen Tung Cuong of Hai Phong in northern Vietnam died March 10 at the age of 80, bringing to three the number of dioceses in the country without a local bishop.

Cuong's death came five days before the March 15-19 visit of a Vatican delegation to Vietnam. During such visits both parties often discuss the appointment of new bishops for vacant dioceses or for dioceses where the incumbent bishop's work is impeded to age or prolonged illness.

As of now, the other vacant dioceses are Hung Hoa and Lang Son, also in northern Vietnam.

Born Oct. 4, 1919, Cuong was ordained a priest in 1949 and a bishop in 1979. The diocese, which has no coadjutor or auxiliary bishop, covers Hal Phong port city, and all of Quang Ninh and part of Hung Yen provinces.

Sri Lankan court permits postponement of elections

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court granted permission to Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake to postpone provincial council elections scheduled for April 1, Holy Thursday.

The court decision came two days after Catholics staged peaceful demonstrations in the Colombo archdiocese and elsewhere in the predominantly Buddhist country to protest the Holy Week election date.

Expressing the fear that any curfew to control postelection violence would hinder Catholics from attending Good Friday services, the Sri Lankan bishops had sought President Chandrika Kumaratunga's intervention Feb. 2 to change the April 1 election date, set in line with a time limit imposed by a Supreme Court ruling in January.