WARSAW (Reuters) – The Vatican has ordered an investigation into the former archbishop of Gdansk on suspicion of negligence over sex abuse allegations, a month after the pope accepted the resignation of a bishop accused of shielding sexually abusive priests.
The Vatican Embassy in Warsaw said in a statement that local Church officials would look into allegations against Archbishop Leszek Slawoj Glodz, who retired in August.
The embassy said the archbishop of Warsaw would investigate Glodz for “reported negligence” that had led to the alleged “detriment of minors by some clergy of the Gdansk Archdiocese”.
Last year priests in Gdansk accusing Glodz of covering up instances of sexual abuse. At the time, Glodz denied any wrongdoing. Efforts to reach Glodz for comment on the new inquiry were unavailing, with the Gdansk curia saying he did not have a spokesman and that Glodz’s whereabouts were not known.
Last month, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of the bishop of Kalisz, Edward Janiak, who was accused of shielding priests known to have sexually abused children.
In May, Church leaders in Poland referred Janiak to the Vatican for judgment after a film by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski purported to show that Janiak failed to take action against priests who were known to have abused children.. Janiak has also denied wrongdoing.
The Sekielski brothers made another film that suggested known paedophiles were deliberately shifted between parishes. The film has had more than 23 million views on YouTube.
(This story has been refiled to tweak headline)
(Reporting by Marcin Goclowski; Editing by Philip Pullella and Mark Heinrich)
