Polish “spy” priest suspended by religious order

VATICAN CITY - Father Konrad Hejmo, a close friend of the late Pope John Paul II accused of spying for Poland’s communist-era secret services, has been suspended by his Dominican religious order for “two or three weeks”, his superior said Saturday.

“Father Hejmo is not a spy but someone who talked too much, too openly and too carelessly, ending up by giving information to the communist secret services,” Maciey Zieba, head of the Polish branch of the order, said.

“We have decided for this reason to suspend him for two or three weeks while we continue to study the documents” of the Polish Institute for National Remembrance (IPN), which disclosed the case last month, Zieba said.

The IPN, which investigates alleged crimes committed by Nazi Germany and the former communist regime in Poland, claims to have files stating that Hejmo worked for the communist secret services in the 1980s under the pseudonyms “Hejnal” and “Dominik.”

more