Warsaw, Poland - Pope Benedict XVI has named a new archbishop of Warsaw, the Polish Episcopate said Saturday, filling a post left open when his predecessor resigned after admitting to ties with the communist-era secret police.
Kazimierz Nycz, the 57-year-old bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg in northern Poland, replaces former Warsaw Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, who abruptly stepped down at what was to be his installation Mass on Jan. 7 after admitting he cooperated with the secret police.
Wielgus' resignation rattled Poland's powerful Roman Catholic Church, and threatened to shake the widely held belief that the church acted as a courageous opponent of communism in the homeland of the late Pope John Paul II.
Speaking with Vatican Radio after the announcement, Nycz said it was a ``difficult decision,'' but also a ``gift'' to take up the challenges facing the Warsaw church.
``With great and truly unhidden humility I stand before all this,'' he said.
The Vatican's announcement of Nycz's appointment gave a short biography and did not mention Wielgus.
Stories of compromised priests largely lay dormant until after John Paul's death in 2005, with some saying people were reluctant to raise the issue of collaboration in the Polish church for fear of embarrassing him.
However, Nycz is widely seen as holding an impeccable record under communism. John Paul nominated him bishop of Krakow in 1988, where Nycz later organized the last three visits of the Polish-born pope to his homeland.
Nycz said the church cannot brush over the cooperation of some priests with the communist-era secret police, but ``that one must approach the issue calmly and apply the evangelical principles.''
``If we don't, we are going to live from name to name, file to file, which would be very bad for the church,'' he added.
In 2004, John Paul named Nycz the bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg diocese on the Baltic Sea coast.
``Warsaw needs a bishop like him,'' Marcin Przeciszewski, the head of Poland's Catholic Information Agency, told the PAP news agency. ``He can build bridges above divisions, and will be able to lead a true and friendly dialogue with the modern world.''