Warsaw gets new archbishop

Pope Benedict XVI has named a new archbishop of Warsaw, the Polish Episcopate said Saturday, filling a post from which the predecessor resigned after admitting he had cooperated with the communist-era secret police.

Kazimierz Nycz, the 57-year-old bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg in northern Poland, replaces Stanislaw Wielgus, who abruptly stepped down Jan. 7 at what was to be his installation Mass. Nycz is seen as holding an impeccable record under communism.

Wielgus’ resignation rattled Poland’s Roman Catholic Church, and threatened to shake the widely held belief that the church was a courageous opponent of communism in the homeland of the late Pope John Paul II.