The Wielgus scandal in Polska right now highlights the strange role the church plays in the country’s collective psyche. Intensely Catholic, Poland is a bit of a paradox when it comes down to praxis — while most Poles label themselves “Catholic,” there is a sizable percentage that doesn’t live Catholic. Birth control is not a sin, nor is missing a Sunday mass. Still, Catholicism in Poland is big, to put it crudely. As Anne Applebaum put it in Slate,

This could only have happened in post-Communist Poland. Where else would millions of people be avidly watching the live transmission of an archbishop’s inaugural mass? (Source)

I too have experienced the occasional spectator nature of Polish Catholicism. Sitting in a bar before John Paul II died, I was privy to a speculation about who could be his successor. And the discussion included names, and it had the free feeling of fans sitting in a sports bar, discussing the upcoming NFL draft.

The relationship with Communism is equally odd. While no one wants to go back to the days of informants, secret police, and closed borders, there is a longing in some quarters for a return to the “security” of Communism. Take into consideration the fact that the unemployment rate in Poland hovers around 19% and it’s clear what that “security” is.

So when these to monolithic components of Polish identity collide, it’s bound to be explosive. Even many not-so-devout Poles have a view of the Catholic church as being a stalwart moral guide under Communism. The Polish Catholic church stood up to Communism, and eventually, Communism collapsed. But priests and bishops are fallible, weak people too, it turns out, and the lure of privileges dangled by those in charge proved too tempting to some.

But why the sudden crisis, now, in 2007? John Paul II. Craig Smith writes, in the International Herald Tribune:

Perhaps the most explosive assertion by people in the church is that the taint of collaboration was known for decades but kept quiet out of respect for — or perhaps even at the behest of — Polish-born Pope John Paul II who died in 2005.

“The church didn’t want to hurt the pope, but actually, more harm was done by keeping silent,” said Zaleski at the hilltop compound of a charitable organization he runs outside of Krakow. (IHT)

So I expect there’ll be more of the same in coming months and years.