Poland Fines Ex-Communist Publisher for Offending the Pope

In the defense of free expression, one must occasionally side with those whose past has been less than noble and whose ideas are unpalatable. And in such cases, one must reprimand those who have been on the side of liberty because they are faltering. So it is with Poland’s conviction of Jerzy Urban over his published insult to the pope. Mr. Urban, the odious mouthpiece for the red fascism of Wojciech Jaruzelski in the 1980s, should have been acquitted.

Mr. Urban, a communist no more, publishes a profitable weekly called Nie - which means “No” in English. In an article called “Walking Sadomasochism,” the Pope was called “the Brezhnev of the Vatican” as well as an “impotent old man.” This came out in 2002 just before His Holiness visited his homeland for the last time. The timing was impolite, and the language (even translated) is insulting to be sure (although as a celibate, it is doubtful if being impotent really amounts to much in the mind of John Paul II). “The court has no doubts that intending to ridicule the church, Jerzy Urban ridiculed and derided the pope," the verdict said, according to The Associated Press. But that is beside the point.

Under Polish law it is illegal to insult a foreign head of state, and the Pope is head of Vatican City, a very small but sovereign state. Mr. Urban faced a possible 10-month suspended jail term, and many in the courtroom cried “Too little” when the $6,500 fine was imposed. But this is a bad law that abridges the freedom that Poles have struggled (more than many) to achieve, and those who demanded a stiffer punishment for the insult have shamed the memory of those who suffered and died for Poland’s liberty.

From 1939 to 1989, Poland was a police state, but a police state imposed from outside. What distinguishes such a regime from a free society is what the people can say. So long as the Wehrmacht or the Red Army had tanks in the cities of Poland, it was unsafe to speak one’s mind. That it should be illegal to do the same now merely trades a foreign oppression for a home-grown variety.

Any sensible observer will attest that Poland is freer now than it was in the miserable 20th century. And it is something of a miracle that the Poles, situated as they are between Germany and Russia, still exist. But to be free means to be unpopular and safe at the same time. The largely Catholic people of Poland may wish to consider the conscience of a German pastor, Martin Niemöller,

First, they came for the Jews and I did not object because I was not a Jew. Then, they came for the Communists and I did not object because I was not a Communist. Then, they came for the trade unionists and I did not object because I was not a trade unionist. Then, they came for me and there was no one left to object for me. [Editor’s Note: some sources actually put the Jews last, and the communists first.]