A scandal erupted over the first cleric named to succeed Glemp, Stanislaw Wielgus, who was forced to resign after admitting he collaborated with the communist-era secret police.

Glemp, who reached the traditional retirement age of 75 in 2004, had returned to his old job following Wielgus' shock resignation on the day of his enthronement.

"The Holy Father has named Kazimierz Nycz as Archbishop of Warsaw, until now the bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg," a Vatican statement said.

Nycz, 57, was ordained in the southern city of Krakow in 1973, where he served as an assistant bishop from 1988 before becoming bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg in 2004.

Wielgus announced in January, at what was to have been his formal investiture at Warsaw Cathedral, that he was resigning as archbishop of the Polish capital because of the accusations about his alleged collaborator past.

According to documents published in the Polish media late last year after Wielgus was named Warsaw archbishop by the Vatican, the cleric actively collaborated with the secret police from 1967 to 1987.