Author of Controversial Biography of Pope Dies

Antoni Gronowicz, whose biography of Pope John Paul II sparked a court battle over whether prosecutors may investigate the truth or falsity of a book, is dead.

His death in this Connecticut city Wednesday went unreported until this week. He was 72 and the cause of death was not announced.

“God’s Broker” was withdrawn by its publisher after Vatican officials and Cardinal John Krol, the archbishop of Philadelphia, disputed Gronowicz’s claim that he had twice interviewed the Pope.

A grand jury probe was launched last year, seeking to determine whether Gronowicz had fraudulently sold movie rights to the book.

In June, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a grand jury subpoena requiring the 72-year-old author to give details on sources for the book. The case, viewed as posing questions about First Amendment rights, is on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Writing for the majority of the 3rd circuit court, Judge John Gibbons said Gronowicz wasn’t protected from grand jury action by the First Amendment and “could constitutionally be prosecuted for misrepresentations.”

Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. warned in a dissenting opinion that the prospect of a criminal investigation into the veracity of a book or article could “so add to the risks inherent in publishing such works that fewer will be published, thus chilling the flow of information and ideas most central to the First Amendment.”

Gronowicz, born in Poland, had lived in the United States since 1938. The papal book was the second of his works to prove controversial. In 1978 he claimed to have interviewed Greta Garbo for an autobiography to be published after the reclusive actress’ death. But Miss Garbo denied that she had ever met Gronowicz much less discussed what the author said were accounts of her sexual encounters.