1,700 professors have signed an appeal defending St. John Paul II, following criticism of the Polish pope in the wake of the Vatican report on former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The professors who signed this appeal are from Polish universities and research institutions, and some of the signatories include Hanna Suchocka, Poland's first female prime minister, former foreign minister Adam Daniel Rotfeld, physicists, a film director and other well known polish people. Those behind the appeal said it was launched because, "An impressive long list of John Paul II's merits and accomplishments are being challenged and erased." The Vatican never came out with a statement but left the Church leaders in Poland to respond to the criticism directly. The President of the Polish bishops' conference said that anyone who has thoroughly researched John Paul II's pontificate knows very well his priorities to protect children and youth. He goes on to say, "It was he who saw the future of the Church in the young, and therefore he was the first to introduce the Church's legal regulations to protect the weakest, and thus initiated the process of detecting sexual crimes and punishing clergymen who perpetrated them." Rome Correspondent, Colm Flynn reports.
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