Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski

Isakowicz-Zaleski was born in Krakow to a Polish father and an Armenian mother.[7] Since high school years he was engaged in several Roman Catholic youth organizations. After graduating, he entered a seminary in his native city, which did not prevent him from being called for service in the Polish Army. He served in the years 1975-1977 in Brzeg.[7] In the late 1970s, after returning to the seminary, he joined the anticommunist student movements, such as Student Committee of Solidarity. He co-published a Samizdat magazine Cross of Nowa Huta, also in 1977 he debuted in Tygodnik Powszechny with his poems.

In 1980, Isakowicz-Zaleski became engaged in the Solidarity movement;[1] three years later he was ordained and chosen to continue studies at the Papal Armenian Collegium in Rome. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to leave Communist Poland, because of his underground activities. Isakowicz-Zaleski began working in Krakow’s district of Nowa Huta, where he celebrated Mass for the workers and for the fatherland in the Maximilian Kolbe parish in Mistrzejowice. Throughout the 1980s, he was repressed, and the Communist secret service agents twice brutally beat him.[1][8] Both incidents happened in 1985, and came in the wake of the notorious 1984 murder of fellow Solidarity priest Jerzy Popiełuszko. The first attack occurred in April at his mother's home, where after gagging him the agents burned a V sign – the victory sign of the outlawed Solidarity trade union which he supported – on his chest with a cigarette.[3][9][10] Later in December of the year, he was attacked again, this time at his presbytery.[11] His ordeal was later used by Polish director Maciej Gawlikowski in his 2006 film To Intimidate the Priest.

In 1988, as a priest of the workers, he participated in the strike in Nowa Huta’s Lenin Steel Mill. At the same time, he began helping the poor and the handicapped, together with nuns from local convents. In 1987, he co-founded charitable Foundation of Brother Albert Chmielowski. He remained director of the Foundation, which owns a shelter in the village of Radwanowice in the suburbs of Krakow.

In 2006, after months of research at Institute of National Remembrance, he drafted a book on the collaboration between Catholic priests and government agents. But Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz of Kraków denied him the permission to publish it, unless it is vetted in advance by archdiocesan officials. On 3 May 2006, Father Zaleski was awarded one of Poland's highest Orders, the Polonia Restituta (Order of Polish Rebirth) by President Lech Kaczyński. In November 2006, he received an apology from the nation's Catholic primate, Cardinal Józef Glemp of Warsaw, for earlier criticizing his research into collaboration between the clergy and the Communist-era secret police.[12]

In February 2007 he finally published his controversial book, "Ksieza wobec bezpieki na przykladzie archidiecezji krakowskiej" (Polish Priests and the Communist Secret Police) on priests who cooperated with communist secret services.[10]

In 2005, during the 25th Anniversary Celebrations of Solidarity, Zaleski was tipped off that there was a pre-1989 secret police file on him in Krakow. By then, under new Polish law, one could view one's own file, as well as those who informed on you. He sought permission from the IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) to study the documents. Subsequently he found some five hundred pages of material on himself alone, names of fellow priests who had allegedly spied on him, and also a video of himself being gagged and beaten by thugs. He was swiftly able to identity several clergymen who had informed on him. Most crucially, evidence suggested that four figures who had risen to bishop status by 2005 were themselves past informers.[21]

In February 2006, Zaleski came up with the idea of revealing the names of priests from the Archdiocese of Kraków who had been secret informers of the Communist secret service. As he himself had been victimized by Communist agents, he obtained access to his files, kept by the Institute of National Remembrance, as an injured party.[22] Thus, he appealed publicly for all the priests who had served as secret agents for the Security Service to step forward and reveal themselves, causing a furor.

In August of the same year, Zaleski revealed that he had sent letters to priests registered as secret collaborators.[23] His activities were harshly criticized by the Krakow Curia and Zaleski received an order from his superiors to refrain from making public statements about this subject. Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz stated that Isakowicz-Zaleski had received a permit to conduct research exclusively into the repression that he himself faced under communism.[23] Dziwisz condemned his "irresponsible and harmful" activities in a public letter, warned him to stop "throwing accusations",[22] and finally ordered him to be silent[24][25] Eventually Dziwisz gave his permission for Zaleski to notify the clergymen before he identified them and allowed them to comment.[4]

Nevertheless, Zaleski persisted saying that the church "must repent for the misdeeds of compromised priests".[3] He told the Wprost Weekly, that in the fall of 2006 he was in a personal crisis and considered resigning from the priesthood.[26] His research in the secret police files showed that 39 Krakow priests had collaborated with the regime. Four of them were now bishops. "The whole tragedy is that the church had 16 years to take care of the problem, and it didn't do a thing", stated Zaleski,[3] adding that the Church "didn't want to hurt the pope, but actually, more harm was done by keeping silent".[4][27]

On 28 February 2007, Znak publishing house issued Zaleski’s book Ksieza wobec bezpieki na przykladzie diecezji krakowskiej (Polish Priests and the Communist Secret Police, ISBN 978-83-240-0803-2), in which he addressed the topic of the extent to which Poland’s Roman Catholic Church was infiltrated by communist security.[28] In November, Zaleski was awarded the Prize of Jozef Mackiewicz. The book sparked huge public attention, with people signing up at bookstores to make sure they would get a copy. Zaleski decided to donate the royalties to charity.[29]

• "Oblezenie" (Siege, 1981) - poems, published as samizdat under pseudonym Jacek Partyka
• "Wspomnienia" (Recolletions, 1985) - poems, published as samizdat under pseudonym Jan Kresowiak
• "Morze Czerwone" (Red Sea, 1988) -poems, published as samizdat under pseudonym Jan Kresowiak
• "Slownik biograficzny ksiezy ormianskich i pochodzenia ormianskiego w Polsce w latach 1750-2000" (Biographical Dictionary of Armenian Priests in Poland 1750-2000, 2001)
• "Arcybiskup ormianski Izaak Mikolaj Isakowicz "Zlotousty" : duszpasterz, spolecznik i patriota 1824-1901" (Armenian Archbishop Izaak Mikolaj Isakowicz, 2001)
• "Wiersze" (Poems, 2006)
• "Ksieza wobec bezpieki na przykladzie archidiecezji krakowskiej" (Polish Priests and the Communist Secret Police, 2007)
• "Moje zycie nielegalne" (My illegal life, 2008)
• "Przemilczane ludobojstwo na Kresach" (Subdued Genocide in Kresy 2008)

• Lustration in Poland
• Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa
• Massacres of Poles in Volhynia

• Father Isakowicz-Zaleski's webpage, with his blog