Cardinal Glemp Resigns

Pope accepts resignation of Polish Cardinal Glemp, names replacement



VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Polish Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Warsaw, who turns 77 Dec. 18, but said the cardinal will retain the personal title of Polish primate until his 80th birthday.

Announcing the cardinal's retirement Dec. 6, the Vatican also announced the pope had named Bishop Stanislaw Wielgus of Plock to succeed him.

Cardinal Glemp has headed the Archdiocese of Warsaw since 1981 and led it through the tumultuous years of Poland's martial law, underground Solidarity movement and the fall of communism in the late 1980s. The new archbishop of Warsaw, 67, spent 30 years teaching philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin. An expert on medieval philosophy and on the history of philosophy in Poland, he served three terms as the rector of the Lublin university. Pope John Paul II named him bishop of Plock in 1999.