WARSAW, Poland (AP)_ A Warsaw court Monday ordered the ex-communist daily Trybuna to print an apology and pay a fine for a 1997 article calling Polish-born Pope John Paul II a "coarse vicar" whose speech was "slovenly and mumbling."
The newspaper must print a front-page apology and donate the fine to the Roman Catholic charity Caritas, the judge ordered, because "religious feelings of many people were hurt" by the story.
The verdict resulted from a private lawsuit filed by the Rev. Zdzislaw Peszkowski, 84, a noted Polish priest who narrowly escaped a 1940 massacre by Soviet secret police.
Trybuna editor Wojciech Pielecki contends the offensive language appeared by mistake and apologized to Peszkowski. But he has refused to apologize in print and is expected to appeal Monday's verdict.