Warsaw’s ruling party strongly condemned on Thursday a “shameful” campaign against the late Pope John Paul II, who was accused by the media of covering up pedophilia in the Polish church before his election to the Holy See in 1978, AFP reported.

The lower house of the Polish parliament, controlled by populist nationalists in power, on Thursday adopted a resolution in which it “strongly condemns the disgraceful media campaign (…) the subject of which is the Great Pope – Saint John Paul II, the greatest Pole in history.”

The resolution was adopted mainly by deputies from the ruling party “Law and Justice” (PiS), as well as other right-wing parties. The liberal opposition did not participate in the vote, and the left voted against.

The adoption of the text followed the broadcast of a television report on TVN on Sunday and the publication on Wednesday of a book by a Dutch journalist who claims that the future Polish pontiff covered up cases of pedophilia in the Catholic Church when he was a bishop. Krakow

“Saint John Paul II occupies a special place in the history of Poland and Europe. His resolute support of our homeland’s right to freedom among the peoples of Europe, protection of the rights of our nation made the Holy Father the most important father of Polish independence,” the authors of the resolution write.

For his part, the head of the Polish episcopate, Archbishop Stanisław Hadecki, on Thursday asked “all people of good will not to destroy (…) the legacy of Ivan Paul II.”

According to him, as a result of the decisions of John Paul II, “the Church has made a determined effort to create structures and develop clear procedures to guarantee the safety of children and young people, to properly punish those guilty of sexual crimes and, above all, to help the wounded.”

On the same day, the Polish MFA “invited” the American ambassador for an interview, Polish media reported. TVN, which broadcast the report, is owned by the American group Discovery.

In a statement about the US ambassador’s “invitation,” the ministry said the potential consequences of the broadcaster’s actions “are identical to the goals of a hybrid war aimed at division and tension in Polish society.”

Two journalistic investigations cite documents and direct testimony about some cases of pedophilia among priests, about which the future Pope John Paul II could have known.