Catholic prize splits Polish scholars

THE Polish academic world is at loggerheads because of an attack on one of its best-known scholars, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, by ten academics at the Catholic University of Lublin.

Professor Bartoszewski, who was imprisoned by both Nazis and Communists, taught at the unofficial "Flying University" of the late 1970s. He was foreign minister in 1994-95 and tipped as a possible candidate for the premiership.

He has received numerous honours for his academic and social activities, including the Israeli title of "Righteous among the Gentiles" for saving Jews in the occupation.

When the German Catholic diocese of Essen awarded him its Heinrich Brauns Prize for work in the Catholic social sciences in October, it was one more tribute.

But Lublin staff wrote to the Bishop of Essen alleging that Professor Bartoszewski was not a suitable recipient, neither in terms of his personal life nor his work in social science. He is an acknowledged expert in the history of Polish-Jewish relations.

They alleged he had no right to the title of professor and that the most he could rightfully claim was a school-leaving diploma.

The right-wing Gazeta Polska published the letter and Gazeta Wyborcza, one of the most widely-read and influential dailies, reprinted it with a rebuttal signed by leading Catholic intellectuals.

Both the university and the Catholic hierarchy are distancing themselves from the attack. The academic senate issued a statement of "deep disapproval" of the form and content of the letter, which it said, had "done great moral damage" to the university.