*-A COPY OF THIS WAS ALSO INCLUDED IN MY JANUARY
14, 1983 SUBMISSION TO THEN-CANADIAN
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ALLAN MACEACHEN.MOSCOW (TPS)--The Soviet government news agency Tass Wednesday night distributed a sharp attack on Pope John Paul II, asserting that under his leadership the Vatican was involved in "subversive" activities in Poland as well as in "anti-communist propaganda on a broad scale."
In the first direct attack on the Pope since the turmoil in Poland began more than two years ago, Tass charged that the "notorious" independent labor union Solidarity was a creation of the Roman Catholic church. The broadside distributed by Tass was printed in a Communist Party monthly, Politicheskoe Samoobrazovaniye (political self-education). It appeared to reflect Soviet displeasure with the controversy that has erupted recently over Western allegations that Bulgarian authorities were linked to the attempted assassination of the pontiff in 1981.
Describing Vatican policies as having coming under the influence of "the opponents of détente" and "the aggressive designs of imperialism," the article declared:
"Unlike his predecessors, the present head of the Catholic church, John Paul II--the former archbishop of Krakow, cardinal Karol Wojtyla--has taken a much more conservative and rigid position via-a-vis the socialist world.
"It goes without saying that the present 'vice-regent of St. Peter' prefers, in his statements whose substance happens to be political, to speak the language of Christian prayers. Yet the thrust of his statements is clear.
"The anti-socialist activity of the reactionary forces of the Catholic church is attested by the developments of recent years in People's Poland."
(text of December 30, 1982 Vancouver Sun article)
*-A COPY OF THIS WAS ALSO INCLUDED IN MY JANUARY
14, 1983 SUBMISSION TO THEN-CANADIAN
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ALLAN MACEACHEN.
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