WIESENTHAL CENTER: NO EU FUNDS TO RYDZYK-LED RADIO MARYJA

News of EU grant comes on heels of reports that Polish bishops will call to discipline Rydzyk for anti-Semitic comments

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging the European Union to withhold a funding of a proposed $21.1 million (15.5 million Euros) grant to the controversial Polish Catholic media group Radio Maryja unless its outspoken anti-Semitic founder, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, is removed.  The request was reportedly on the shortlist of projects being presented to the EU by Poland. “By funding a media entity that has served as a sounding board for extremists and headed by an anti-Semitic priest, the EU would be violating its own mandate and would in fact be helping to promote bigotry and anti-Semitism to the people of democratic Poland,” said  Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center.

Word of the request for the EU grant comes on the heels of reports in the Polish press the Catholic Bishops Conference in Poland will ask the worldwide head of the Redemptorist Order, to discipline Rydzyk, and to remove him as head of its Radio Maryja.

“The Jewish community and other friends of Poland hope that these reports are true and that Rydzyk’s superiors take this necessary and appropriate action. In doing this and making this move, the Catholic Redemptorist Order will deal a severe blow to the forces of intolerance,” concluded Rabbi Hier.

When recordings of antisemitic remarks made by Rydzyk were made public earlier this summer, the Wiesenthal Center launched a petition campaign where over 25,000 Center members called on the Polish bishops to discipline the priest. The Center was joined by other Polish theologians, intellectuals and politicians, including former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who sent their own joint statement.