"The church didn't want to hurt the pope, but actually, more harm was done by keeping silent," Father Zaleski, 50, said in an interview at the hilltop compound of a charity he runs outside Krakow.

"The church is guilty because it had the possibility to cleanse itself by publishing honest data about the clergy's activities during the Communist time," Father Zaleski said. The church argues that coming to terms with the past is a matter of personal sin that should be handled within the church in a spirit of forgiveness. It also argues that the public disclosure of secret service files on clergy members could do the church harm because many of the documents are false or misleading.

"I just couldn't imagine that there were priests who had cooperated with the secret police," he said.

He sought guidance from the Krakow archbishop, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, a longtime personal secretary to Pope John Paul II. But Father Zaleski said he was at first ignored and then told to pray. Eventually, his superiors advised that he burn the documents.

"They weren't interested at all in knowing anything about this," he said, rifling through a stack of photocopies stamped by the Institute of National Remembrance.

When Father Zaleski decided to begin publishing disclosures in May, Cardinal Dziwisz forbade him to do so or to speak to the press because it would undermine "love for the church and Christ." The cardinal issued an order prohibiting any member of the clergy from delving into Krakow's secret police archives without his authorization.

But after he met with Cardinal Dziwisz in June, the archbishop agreed to let him proceed on the condition that Father Zaleski seek comment from the clergymen he intended to identify.