Vatican editor quits after writing controversial article

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 11

Vatican editor quits after writing controversial article

NZPA-Reuter Vatican City A Vatican journalist who said that Lech Walesa had temporarily lost his battle with the Polish authorities has resigned as deputy editor of the semi-official “L’Osservatore Romano.” Father Virgilio Levi wrote in a front-page editorial in Friday’s newspaper that the Polish union leader had met the Pope, “without claiming to count at all any more in the present phase of the country’s life.” Pope John Paul met Mr Walesa privately on Thursday, the last day of the Pope’s eight-day tour of his homeland. Some journalists in Italy and abroad interpreted the editorial as suggesting that the Pope had decided that Mr Walesa no longer had a role to play as the people’s

spokesman in Poland and was leaving the stage. A Vatican spokesman confirmed Father Levi’s own statement that the. editorial had expressed his own views as a journalist. “In view of the interpretations given to his article Don Levi decided to resign as deputy editor of the ‘L’Osservatore Romano’ and his resignation has been accepted,” the Vatican’s deputy spokesman told journalists. Father Levi also said in his editorial: “Sometimes awkward people need to be sacrificed in order that a greater good can emerge for the community.” “Walesa appears to have entered into this spirit, even though in his soul the hope will not diminish that things may change in the fut-

ure.” Sources close to the Vatican said that they believed Father Levi had been sacked and added that there were few precedents in living memory of Vatican journalists having to resign from their posts. Father Levi earlier said that the views expressed in his article were entirely his own and did not represent the official Vatican position. The spokesman emphasised that the article “contained purely personal thoughts as a journalist” and there was no need to take further action to deny rumours that the Pope had abandoned Mr Walesa, which were “absurd.” Informed sources said that the Vatican had thought the resignation the first on the

paper, would be enough to minimise the damage already caused. Father Levi’s article, had been checked by only one of his colleagues and not submitted to the Vatican Secretariat as it should have been, given the contents, sources in the paper said. Meanwhile authoritative Vatican sources said that Mr Walesa’s recent meeting with the Pope had been the “result of sustained efforts,” begun before the visit and continued in Poland by Pope John Paul. The interview had been “a concession by the Polish authorities to the Pope’s request,” the sources said. The publication of those details the first since the meeting in Poland, at the same time as the Italian

press splashed headlines such as “Pope drops Walesa” or “Walesa goes, says Vatican,” was no coincidence, observers in the Vatican believed. Father Henryk Jankowski, friend and confessor to Mr Walesa, has told the West German weekly newspaper, “Bild am Sonntag,” that: “Walesa is still the same as he was in 1980: the symbol and leader of Solidarity. There is no question of Lech Walesa leaving public life.” He dismissed Father Levi’s article as “comment and not the truth.” Father Levi had been deputy editor of “L’Osservatore Romano” since 1972 and wrote page one editorials. He has also written books on Poland, theology, and literature.