Józef Glemp

infobox cardinalbiog
name = Józef Glemp


See = Warsaw (Emeritus)
Title = Archbishop emeritus of Warsaw
Period = July 7, 1981—December 6, 2006
cardinal = February 2, 1983
Predecessor = Stefan Wyszyński
Successor = Stanisław Wielgus
post = Bishop of Warmia
date of birth = Birth date and age|1929|12|18|mf=y
place of birth = Inowrocław, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland|

Józef Glemp (born December 18, 1929) is a Polish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Warsaw from 1981 to 2006, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983. In 2007 Glemp was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Warsaw until the appointment of Kazimierz Nycz as Archbishop to succeed Stanislaw Wielgus. Wielgus resigned one hour before taking office, due to being exposed as paid informant of secret police.fact|date=September 2008

Biography

Józef Glemp was born in Inowrocław to Kazimierz Glemp and Salomei z Kośmickich, and was baptized the same day. His father had participated in the insurrection of Greater Poland from 1918 to 1919. Józef studied at the seminaries of Gniezno and Poznań, but his education was interrupted by the World War II; he and his siblings were slave laborers during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Glemp was ordained to the priesthood on 25 May 1956 by Bishop Franciszek Jedwabski.

After two years of pastoral service in Poznań, he was sent to Rome in 1958 to study canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University, earning his doctorate "in utroque iure" in 1964, with a thesis on: "De evolutione conceptus fictionis iuris". After his practicum he was given the title of Advocate of the Roman Rota. He attended a course in stylistic Latin at the Pontifical Gregorian University and also finished his studies in ecclesial administration.

In 1964, he finished all his studies in Rome and returned to Gniezno in Poland. He became chaplain of the Dominican and Franciscan Sisters and teacher of religion in the house for delinquent minors. He worked as Secretary of the Seminary of Gniezno and as notary for the Curia and the metropolitan tribunal and also as defender of the bond.

In December 1967, he worked in the Secretariat of the Primate, and for 15 years was one of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński's close collaborators. As the personal chaplain of the Cardinal, he accompanied him on his journeys within Poland and to Rome. He exercised varied responsibilities in the Commissions of the Polish Episcopate and taught Canon Law at the Academy of the Catholic Theology in Warsaw. He participated in several congresses on this topic in Poland and abroad. In 1972 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness, and in March 1976 be became Canon of the Metropolitan Chapter at Gniezno.

On 4 March 1979, John Paul II named him Bishop of Warmia, in the northeast part of Poland and was consecrated on the feast of St. Adalberto, on 21 April, in Gniezno.infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Józef Glemp
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Warsaw(emeritus)|After the death of Cardinal Wyszyński on 18 May 1981, he was named Archbishop of Gniezno on 7 July 1981, in union "pro hac vice, ad personam" with the Archdiocese of Warsaw. As Bishop of Gniezno he became also the Primate of Poland. (The title of Primate of Poland was conferred on the Archbishop of Gniezno by Pope Martin V in 1418 and confirmed by Leo X in 1515, every Primate of Poland to the time of his election, even if he is not a cardinal, has the right to wear the red "zucchetto" of a cardinal, a privilege already accorded in 1600 and confirmed by Benedict XIV in 1749.)

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by John Paul II in the Consistory of 2 February 1983. Titular "Church of St. Mary in Trastevere". On 25 March 1992, with the restructuring of the Church dioceses in Poland, John Paul II dissolved the union "ad personam" of Gniezno-Warsaw, naming as Metropolitan Archbishop of Gniezno Bishop Henryk Muszynski. The Holy Father decided that the title of Primate of Poland should remain linked to the historical heritage of S. Adalberto in the Archdiocese of Gniezno and confirmed that Cardinal Józef Glemp, Archbishop of Warsaw, who had custody of the relics of S. Adalberto, which were venerated in the Cathedral of Gniezno, should continue to bear the title of Primate of Poland. Later, Pope Benedict XVI stipulated that Cardinal Glemp, despite his retirement, will remain primate until his 80th birthday, when the restoration to Gniezno will take place.

Cardinal Glemp acted as President of the Episcopal Conference of Poland for 23 years, from 1981 until March 2004.

He was president delegate to the 1st Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops (1991).

Glemp was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.

On 7 January 2007, it was announced that Cardinal Glemp would be acting as the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Warsaw due to the resignation of Stanisław Wielgus. [ [http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/19534.php?index=19534&lang=en|COMUNICATO DELLA NUNZIATURA APOSTOLICA IN POLONIA] accessed 7 January 2007]

On 3 March 2007, Kazimierz Nycz was appointed to the Warsaw see.

Curial membership:

*Oriental Churches (congregation)
*Culture (council)
*Apostolic Signatura (tribunal)

Anti-Semitism Controversy

Glemp has been accused of anti-Semitism, most notably by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. "Cardinal Glemp has made a career out of blaming the Jews for all of Poland's ills, including 'spreading communism,' 'plying [Polish] peasants with alcohol' and even anti-Semitism," Dershowitz wrote in an article for the "Jerusalem Post" in 2007. [ [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467709340&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull Double Standard Watch: The new blood libel | Blogs & Columns | Jerusalem Post ] ]

In the late 1980s, Dershowitz filed a defamation suit against Glemp, then the Archbishop of Warsaw, on behalf of Rabbi Avi Weiss. Glemp had accused Weiss and six other New York Jews of attacking nuns at a much-disputed convent on the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. [ [http://www.davidscottwritings.com/rabbilosesround.html Rabbi loses round in campaign against cardinal ] ]

Cardinal Glemp's statement about Rabbi Weiss, made in July 1989, was coupled with suggestions that Jews control the world's news media and was widely viewed as anti-Semitic in tone. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1D6173CF934A25754C0A967958260 Jewish Group Attacks Author of 'Chutzpah' - New York Times ] ] A full account of the lawsuit appears in Dershowitz's 1991 bestseller, "Chutzpah".

See also:

References