Obituary: Jerzy Turowicz

JERZY TUROWICZ was for half a century Poland's leading Catholic layman. As veteran chief editor of the respected Krakow weekly Tygodnik Powszechny ("Universal Weekly"), he was a powerful figure in Poland's post-war cultural and religious life during the long years of Communist rule. Although a close friend of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II, his relations with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski were not always so smooth.

In the post-Communist period he was a critic of some aspects of Polish society and was wary of attempts in the more backward- looking quarters of the Church to re-establish its control over society. He accused the Catholic bishops of wanting to "replace Marxist ideology with Christianity". Turowicz even grew exasperated at his old friend Pope John Paul, who had him thrown off the board of the John Paul II Foundation after Turowicz had run a debate in the paper about whether there should be some exceptions to the Church's ban on abortion.

Turowicz was born in Krakow (then in the Austro-Hungarian empire) in 1912 and studied philosophy at the city's Jagiellonian University, graduating in 1939. He was always passionately devoted to journalism, publishing his first article when he was 18. He became chief editor of the Krakow paper Glos Narodu in 1939.

In March 1945 Cardinal Adam Sapieha founded Tygodnik Powszechny and Turowicz became chief editor, a post he was to hold for 50 years. The one interruption to his long reign was in the 1950s. Turowicz and his fellow editor Stanislaw Stomma refused to publish an obituary of Stalin in 1953. The Communist authorities used the long-desired opportunity to take the paper away from Turowicz and his suspect team and hand it to the loyal Pax organisation, led by the Fascist-turned-Communist Boleslaw Piasecki.

In 1956 though, with Gomulka's reforms, there was a slight easing of political control. Leading Znak members - who were Socialists but never Marxists - declared their support for the reforms, which they believed would bring Poland closer to their brand of socialism. Gomulka summoned the group to Warsaw and the paper was restored to Turowicz. The first new issue appeared on Christmas Day 1956. Turowicz also became a leading member of the newly established Catholic Intelligentsia Clubs.

Before 1953 the paper worked in what Turowicz described as "a closed vase", but after 1956 was able to reforge links with the Church in the rest of the world, sending journalists abroad, participating in international events and receiving foreign papers. Turowicz once set out the three main principles behind the paper: "an explanation of the demands of the Gospel in the social sphere", "an ecclesiology which recognises the links that exist between the Church and the world", and "a universalism which turns its back on all provincialism or narrow nationalism".

Tygodnik Powszechny's survival as an independent Catholic paper in Communist Eastern Europe was unique, and was partly due to Turowicz's delicate skills and partly to the power of the church hierarchy who, with certain qualification, backed the paper. But Turowicz - who never shied away from sensitive topics - had to cope with constant obstruction from the authorities. The chief problem was getting enough newsprint. After Turowicz's restoration in 1956, circulation rose to 50,000, but would have been far higher had the authorities not restricted the number of copies printed.

There were also constant problems with the censors. From the 1970s on Turowicz refused to publish articles that had been cut. After the declaration of martial law in 1981 blank spaces, filled only with the decree number that authorised government censorship of newspapers, became a common sight. As far back as 1964, Turowicz had signed the famous "Letter of the 34" to Premier Jozef Cyrankiewicz protesting against censorship and limited allocations of paper.

Turowicz's position brought him in close touch with Wojtyla, who returned to Krakow full-time as assistant bishop in 1958 and became archbishop in 1964. The future pope would often drop by at Turowicz's home. The two had long been friends, and Turowicz published a number of his articles. He was also the first to publish any of Wojtyla's poetry in full (under a pseudonym) in 1950. The future pope had little time for reading, and Tygodnik Powszechny was the only paper he claimed to read regularly. Wojtyla entrusted Turowicz with the task of choosing the books he should take to read on holiday. The veteran editor later had the joy of being present in Rome to report the papal election of October 1978 at which his friend became pope.

Krakow - the Catholic intellectual centre of Poland - was to remain Turowicz's home, and he was heavily involved in the city's intellectual life, of which the paper was the cornerstone. A friend once likened Turowicz's office to "a railway station with people dashing in and out on any excuse or none". As well as his paper, the Znak discussion group and monthly journal were based there, along with a vibrant Catholic Intellectuals' Club. The head of the Polish Church, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, was distinctly wary of the radical lay-led movement, especially when it ventured to criticise the hierarchy. But the group received tactful encouragement from Wojtyla.

Turowicz welcomed the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which were often slow to take root in Poland. He also supported post-war reconciliation with the Germans as well as seeking a balanced view of Polish-Jewish relations. In the 1980s, as tension between the two groups increased - caused by the film Shoah and the siting of a Carmelite convent next to the Auschwitz camp - Turowicz opened his paper to a healthy debate on the troubled relations between the two groups. He joined the Bishops' Committee for Dialogue with Judaism in 1987 and, in 1989, became vice- president of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Society.

Turowicz was proud of the non-exclusivity of the paper. "Through the years," he wrote, "the paper was able to work regularly with many of the best Polish writers, often far from the orthodoxy of faith and outside the communion of the Church, but attracted by a Catholic journal because they saw it as a place of liberty, tolerance and independence." He prized this non-exclusivity as much in the post- Communist era as he had done under Communist rule.

Turowicz had a happy family life with his long-suffering wife Anna and his three daughters, who had to put up with their home being turned into an extension of the office. His rooms were, said a friend, "so crammed with books and papers that it looked as if the floor would collapse at any moment". Visitors were many. Turowicz, the compulsive journalist, lived and breathed journalism and the Church.

Felix Corley

Jerzy Turowicz, journalist: born Krakow 10 December 1912; chief editor, Tygodnik Powszechny 1945-53, 1956-99; married 1938 Anna Gasiorowska (three daughters); died Krakow 27 January 1999.