28 August 2007
Some Catholic bishops in Poland reportedly want the controversial priest Tadeusz Rydzyk removed as head of the country's influential right-wing ‘Radio Maryja’ station. However, a meeting of bishops in Czestochowa this weekend failed to take a decision on the matter according to a report in the ‘Rzeczpospolita’ newspaper. Archbishop
Jozef Michalik, the head of the Polish Episcopalian Conference, said that “it was not possible to judge a man because of an inconsiderate statement.”
The Redemptorist priest Rydzyk has become one of Poland's most controversial clergymen, following a number of anti-Semitic comments. Cultivating an audience of predominantly poor and elderly rural listeners, Radio Maryja has become a platform for right-wing politicians seeking voters. Rydzyk was most recently embroiled in a controversy over having apparently called Poland's first lady Maria Kaczynska a ‘witch’.
