POLAND: NEW PROBLEM WITH THE CHURCH

Created: 3/6/1982

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

POLAND: New Problem With the Church

government yesterday for the first timea Roman Catholic priest to threealf years in prison on the charge of slandering the authoritiesermon in late December. The authorities also detained another priest, alleging theyistol in his residence that was used in the killingoliceman. Before these developments, the Church and the regime had not pressed minor but potentiallyissues in the interest of easing tensions, j ^

Comment: The actions against the priests, which follow media attacks on the Church, will raise concern in the Church that some in the regime may behowdown. This concern could provoke the Church into reacting vigorously, if only to prevent the security services from believing they can with impunity implicate clerics in alleged crimes or opposition to martial law. Tensions would be increased substantially if the regime were to move against priests and bis Solidarity's underground activists.

10

62

Approved for Release