Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland, according to a television news report.
In a story that aired late Monday, Polish channel TVN24 named three priests whom the future pope then known as Archbishop Karol Wojtyla had moved among parishes during the 1970s, including one who was sent to Austria, after they were accused of abusing minors.
Two of the priests eventually served prison terms for the abuse, TVN24 said its investigation found. Wojtyla served as archbishop of Krakow from 1964 to 1978, when he became Pope John Paul II. He died in 2005 and was declared a saint in 2014 following a fast-tracked process.
TVN24 quoted from documents of Poland's communist-era secret security services, which sought to discredit the Catholic Church and had informers there. Journalist Marcin Gutowski also spoke with a number of victims and to a person who said he informed Wojtyla during the 1970s about the abuse by one of the priests.
The TV channel also quoted from a letter that Wojtyla wrote to the archbishop of Vienna, recommending a priest, Boleslaw Sadus, to his care. Wojtyla did not say in the letter that Sadus had abused young boys. Sadus was made a parish priest in Austria.
TVN24's investigation concluded that there was no doubt Wojtyla knew about abuse by priests in his archdiocese and sought to conceal it.
The channel's report has unleashed heated reactions in Poland, with some observers deriding it as an attempt by left-wing forces to destroy the memory of John Paul II and others calling for the Catholic Church to reveal the truth.
The choice of Wojtyla for the pope in 1978 energized Poland's predominantly Catholic population to openly oppose the nation's communist system and eventually topple it.
