PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Czech Catholic Cardinal Miroslav Vlk has asked authorities to investigate possible collaboration between priests and the communist-era secret service.
Vlk, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, urged Interior Minister Ivan Langer to open an inquiry into the communist era when clergymen reportedly collaborated with the secret police, Prague Radio said Thursday.
The cardinal said the state police was known for using very tough methods to force priests to cooperate, the Lidove Noviny daily reported.
On Wednesday, Czech television said Pavol Mihal, the head of the Czech office of the international Interpol police, began collaborating with the communist secret police in 1984. Mihal denied the allegations.
Langer said police will investigate the Mihal case as soon as possible.
Collaboration with state secret police during the former communist regimes was widespread across Soviet-controlled East European countries from the late 1940s to the fall of communism in 1989, the report said.
