The subject of screening citizens to check if they collaborated with the communist-era security services still causes fierce arguments among politicians as well as great public interest, particularly after revelations that some priests were collaborators.

The Sejm ended work on the amendment to a vetting bill Oct. 18. The proposed law on publishing information about documents of the security institutions of the Polish state 1944-1990 changes the vetting rules and amends the law on the National Remembrance Institute (IPN). It will now be sent to the president who has 21 days to decide whether to sign the bill, send it to the Constitutional Tribunal, or veto it. In the latter case, the bill can still be passed by the Sejm with a three-fifths majority vote.

Deputies have voted on 68 amendments put forward by the Senate. They decided that there would be no obligation to fire people whose names appear in the documents of the former Security Service (SB) in the "individual sources of information" (OZI) category, or former staff of the communist security services. Still, the law includes a provision that makes it possible to fire a person or deprive them of a function in relation to materials found in the IPN archives.

Under the amendment, public figures' vetting statements concerning their cooperation or lack of cooperation with the former communist security services will be replaced by IPN certificates about the related content of the communist secret service's archives. The people concerned will be able to appeal to a civil court.
The law expands the catalog of people subject to vetting from the present 27,000 up to several hundred thousand, including councilors, local government officials, public administration workers, diplomats, members of the boards of companies in which the State Treasury holds a stake and of state-owned companies, Central Auditing Office inspectors, IPN staff, heads of the National Health Fund, Social Insurance Company and Farmers' Social Insurance Fund, rectors of all colleges, scientists, heads of schools, heads of sports unions, legal advisors, notaries, heads and publishers of private and public media, and journalists.

According to the law, a person who wishes to run for a public position in general and direct elections (president, parliament member, European parliament member, councilor, commune administrator, town or city mayor) will have to provide the election committee with an IPN certificate. The same will apply to people who are taking up a public post as a result of a nomination, appointment or election other than a general election, or on the basis of a work contract or entry on a list of persons authorized to work in a given profession. Any person performing a public function as defined by the law and who was born before Aug. 1, 1972, has to ask the IPN for a certificate within three months of the law coming into force. There will be two groups of public functions that require the person involved to present an IPN certificate.

The first group of people, who will receive the certificates faster, includes people holding top posts in the state, for example, the president, Sejm deputies, senators, presidents of courts and heads of prosecutor's offices, as well as rectors of colleges, members of supervisory boards in public media, broadcasters and journalists.

The second group includes commune administrators, town and city mayors, local government councilors, directors of public offices, IPN staff, prosecutors, lawyers, legal advisors and notaries, scientists, and heads of public and private schools.

Information on IPN documents concerning people from the first group will become public 90 days after the relevant certificate is issued. The publication of information about people in the second group will require a given person's consent, unless they have worked in the security services or were "an individual source of information."

The Sejm also expanded the definition of "state security institutions" to include communist censorship and the former Office for Religions. The bill disbands the Vetting Court and the Office of the Public Interest Commissioner, naming the IPN as the institution responsible for vetting. Interested individuals will be able to appeal against statements issued by the IPN through civil proceedings in court. Courts will be able to pronounce the communist service files in question "untruthful," "non-applicable" or "forged."

As the Sejm worked on the bill, IPN head Janusz Kurtyka said that the institute was "technically ready to take over vetting." He said that, if provided with some extra funds, the IPN would be able to screen around 40,000 people annually.

Deputies decided that the 11-member IPN council would include seven members elected by the Sejm, two chosen by the president and two elected by the Senate. Currently, the Sejm elects nine members and the National Judiciary Council elects two.

At the same time, the Polish Episcopal Conference appointed its own Historical Commission to investigate cases of priests who collaborated with the former Security Service (SB). Archbishop Józef Michalik, chairman of the Polish Episcopal Conference, said that the commission's job would be to "take an objective look at problems linked with vetting so that people's right to a good name and human dignity are respected." Michalik said the commission would help take a more objective look at the vetting of priests.

A day earlier, Fr. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, a popular Cracow priest who has been conducting a crusade in recent months against former SB informers within church circles, received an order from his superiors to refrain from making public statements about this subject. According to a statement issued by the Cracow Curia, the Catholic Church authority in the Cracow region, Isakowicz-Zaleski's activities "distorted the image of the priesthood." The document stated that Isakowicz-Zaleski had received a permit from Cracow Metropolitan Bishop Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz to conduct research "exclusively into the repression that he faced himself under communism." Despite this, the Curia said, Isakowicz-Zaleski disclosed partial results of his search in IPN archives, "formulating serious accusations against some bishops, priests and monks," which "shocked the faithful."

In August, Isakowicz-Zaleski disclosed that he had sent letters to priests registered as secret SB collaborators, a move criticized by the Curia. On Oct. 9 he submitted the text of his book, "Priests and the SB in the Cracow Diocese," to the Znak publishers in Cracow. The publisher said that editorial work on the book would take a few months to complete, after which time the book would be sent to Cardinal Dziwisz for approval.

Isakowicz-Zaleski is not the only priest who has disclosed the results of his browsing through IPN archives. Henryk Jankowski, a controversial Gdańsk priest once known as the "Solidarity chaplain" has also released a list of clergymen who allegedly informed on him under communism. Jankowski expressed satisfaction with "the new shape" of the vetting legislation passed by the Sejm, adding that he did not support Dziwisz's decision regarding Isakowicz-Zaleski. He also said that he was finishing his own book on the surveillance of the Catholic Church and the anticommunist opposition by security services under communism.