OME, March 28 — Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation today of a high-ranking Polish prelate accused of molesting young seminarians, bowing to pressure to end a sex scandal that had torn the church in intensely Catholic Poland.
In a brief statement, the Vatican said that Archbishop Juliusz Paetz had agreed to resign as spiritual leader of Poznan in western Poland and that he would be replaced by the auxiliary bishop of the nearby archdiocese of Gniezno, Stanislaw Gadecki. No reason was given for Monsignor Paetz's resignation.
It was the second time this month that John Paul had been obliged to accept the resignation of a senior prelate accused of sexual molestation. On March 8 he accepted the resignation of the Bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., Msgr. Anthony J. O'Connell, who was also accused of sexual abuse. In that case the Vatican cited a canon law clause allowing prelates to retire for reasons of health or "other grave cause."
Last year the Vatican, in response to demands from priests and lay leaders of the diocese, was pressed into an investigation of reports that Archbishop Paetz made homosexual advances to teenage seminarians. Monsignor Paetz denied the reports, asserting that he was the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by the news media.
Last November the Vatican sent envoys to Poznan to interview priests and seminarians, some of whom confirmed the reports.
A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, asked about the grounds for the archbishop's resignation, said it was "well known that there were pressures against him." He did not elaborate. No further action was planned against the archbishop, he said, adding, "The rest is up to him, to do what his conscience dictates."
The resolution of the scandal was in line with the practice in many European countries, including conservative Poland, where such scandals are generally handled more discreetly than in the United States. Among American Catholics, accusations of sexual misconduct by priests have often been the result of lawsuits by family members or the victims themselves.
"It is the attitude of the church not to humiliate people," said the Rev. Adam Boniecki, the editor of a Polish Catholic weekly newspaper and a close personal friend of John Paul. He said it was significant that the Vatican cited no canon law grounds in its announcement.
Monsignor Paetz today repeated his denial of any wrongdoing. Addressing priests and laypeople assembled in the Poznan cathedral for Holy Thursday Mass, he said his action was not the result of a Vatican verdict against him, but of a desire for "unity and stability" among Polish Catholics, according to news reports.
He said the Vatican had made no accusation against him and had not subjected him to a trial. The accusations, he said, were the result of misunderstood behavior.
"Not everyone understood my genuine openness and spontaneity toward people," the official Polish Catholic news agency, KAI, quoted him as saying. "There was a misinterpretation of my words and gestures."
Indeed, he said, on a visit to Rome earlier this year he was offered a prestigious Vatican job by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, but that he had refused for reasons of age and poor health. Monsignor Paetz, 67, recently underwent surgery for a hernia.
For his part, the pope returned today to the subject of sexual abuse, if very indirectly, in a homily he delivered at a Holy Thursday Mass he concelebrated with other priests and prelates at St. Peter's.
"We pray for those priestly brothers of ours who have not lived up to the commitments they made when they were ordained," John Paul said, without mentioning Monsignor Paetz, "or who are going through a period of difficulty and crisis."
