PAPAL PAL QUITS IN SCANDAL

Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, 67, of Poznan, and an appointee and longtime acquaintance of the only Polish pope in history, stepped down amid a mounting scandal in the overwhelmingly Catholic country over accusations that he made sexual advances on young clerics.  He is being investigated by the Vatican on accusations that he sexually molested young seminarians.  Archbishop Paetz has denied allegations that he abused priests or seminarians, saying he was the object of a systematic campaign against him.  The national newspaper Rzeczpospolita first publicized the accusations, which quoted several priests who said the archbishop had made homosexual advances.  The newspaper also said that the Roman Catholic authorities had known of such allegations for more than two years, and that the seminary's rector, the Rev. Tadeusz Karkosz, had forbidden the archbishop to enter the seminary unannounced.

(Warsaw, Poland)