In the scandal surrounding the insulting of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, prere is mounting on the Redemptorist Order. Speaking in Warsaw on Tuesday, Kaczynski called the diatribe allegedly delivered by Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, head of church broadcaster Radio Maryja, a "serious problem". It would have to be dealt with between the state and the Redemptorist order. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center called Rydzyk a "Joseph Goebbels with a priest's collar".
The president qualified, so far it is not certain yet whether on the sound recordings published by the news magazine "Wprost" in the Internet actually Rydzyk is to be heard. "If the statements are true, it means that Father Rydzyk insulted the head of state and his wife for the third time," Kaczynski said. The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on Pope Benedict XVI. to suspend the religious for anti-Semitic remarks. "Fraudster who panders to the Jewish lobby" During a lecture in April at a journalism school in Torun, Rydzyk is said to have called the president a "fraud who panders to the Jewish lobby". Jews would have "scammed billions of dollars" as a result. The prosecutor's office is investigating. Public insult to head of state can be punished by up to three years in prison in Poland.The Warsaw province of the Redemptorists had formed a committee on Monday to look into the events. Rydzyk himself accused the media of manipulation on Radio Maryja Monday night: "We are in the middle of a cyclone because we have made ourselves very unpopular with the devil."Poland's head of government defended Radio Mary Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, brother of Lech, had defended the radio station Radio Maryja from accusations of anti-Semitism as recently as 2006. In the mid-1990s, there may have been anti-Semitic tendencies there more often, but at present that is "really no longer the case," said in August. No one should worry about anti-Semitism in Poland.The broadcaster had come under criticism several times for xenophobic and anti-Semitic statements and had been warned by the Vatican for its interference in politics. Kaczynski said that if listeners spoke up with anti-Semitic remarks during the station's numerous phone-ins, they were immediately interrupted by the spiritual moderators.Poland's head of government stressed that, unlike other states, the country has no tradition of persecution and also has excellent relations with Israel. Homosexuals are not persecuted in Poland either. As early as 1932, the punishability of homosexuality was abolished, earlier than in most other European countries. At present, there are many personalities in high office who are homosexual.