The Pope's CIA File

CIA documents recently made public under the Freedom of Information Act provide an unusual, behind-the-scenes portrait of the importance of the Catholic Church and its new Polish pope, John Paul II, to Poland's rapidly unfolding Solidarity movement of the late 1970s and early '80s. John Paul was buried today in Rome, at the age of 84.
Headed by Lech Walesa, Solidarity was a nonviolent federation of labor groups, church people, and noncommunist leftists. For thhis fledgling resistance to Soviet bloc rule, the pope became a galvanizing figure. The CIA papers hint at the extent of the planning to force a confrontation with the Soviet Union, but in such a way as to avoid a direct invasion by Soviet forces.
Rising in what turned out to be the waning days of the Soviet Union, Solidarity presented a direct challenge to Moscow, and sent a message across the eastern bloc. These papers, posted by paperlessarchives.com, include ongoing reports and analyses of the situation as the movement spread. The files track the struggle of church leaders who traveled back and forth from Rome to the Polish churches to support Solidarity and at the same time made efforts to cooperate with the communist government in such a way as to prevent violence. Most of all, the CIA is shown as carefully watching for signs of a Soviet invasion of Poland and a crushing of the movement, along the lines of what had happened in Czechoslovakia in 1968.