Abuse enactment at church retreat for Polish school students sparks anger and apology

Footage has emerged showing high school students in a church watching a performance in which a woman was stripped to her underwear, called a “slut” and “whore”, physically abused, and locked in a cage as part of a religious retreat in the Polish city of Toruń.

The incident sparked outrage from some pupils and parents, with questions about why it did not prompt an immediate response from the teachers present in the church. One NGO also announced plans to notify prosecutors about the showing of violent scenes of a sexual nature to minors.

The priest responsible for overseeing the retreat has admitted that the scene in question, meant to show the dangers of sin, had “crossed the boundary”. He issued an apology to participants and the diocese has announced it will no longer work with the outside group that organised the event.

In several videos of the retreat, published by the local news service Tylko Toruń, a man can be seen taking off a woman’s trousers, roughing her up, pressing her to the ground, putting on a collar, making her drink from a dog bowl, calling her a “slut” (szmata) and locking her in a dog cage.

Other videos also show the man acting out a state of intoxication with a bottle in his hand and a woman calling the encaged girl “a common slut and whore” (zwykła szmata i dziwka).

According to the priest organising the retreat, Mariusz Piotr Wojnowski, director of the catechetical department of Toruń diocese, “the purpose of this scene was to show that sin can lead to many enslavements in everyday life”.

Many students across Poland – one of Europe’s most religious countries – participate in church retreats every year before Easter. But this year, soon after the event at the Church of St Maksymilian Kolbe in Toruń, parents of the students participating in it took to social media to express their outrage.

“This was no retreat,” said one of the mothers, quoted by Tylko Toruń. “My daughter returned outraged. She announced right away that she will definitely not go there tomorrow; it’s not a place for her.”

Another person quoted by the news service claimed that the audience included 14- and 15-year-olds and “kids who were under psychological care, who had various experiences”. He criticised the priests and teachers present in the church for not reacting and stopping the performance.

In a statement to Tylko Toruń, Wojnowski admitted the particular scene shown in the videos was “too strong”, although he assured that the “rest of the retreat was much softer”.

“As for this scene, I’m sorry [it took place]…with minors among the participants,” he added. “An apology will be issued in this matter.”

A video posted online shows Wojnowski telling participants of the retreat that, “on behalf of the organisers, I would like to apologise that you were affected by this scene, that it may have also stirred up a lot of controversies, a lot of emotions”.

The apology was not enough to satisfy some critics. Left-wing MP Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus announced that she would send a list of questions to the district education superintendent about the retreat, including whether they were aware of what would take place and had given approval for the enactment to be performed.

Scheuring-Wielgus also noted the irony that the conservative education minister, Przemysław Czarnek, has sought to prevent sex education in schools because it can “morally corrupt” children. But here it was at a religious retreat in a church that children were exposed to a “pornographic, masochistic show”, she said.

However, in a Facebook post, the deputy provincial education superintendent, Maria Mazurkiewicz, defended the enactment, saying that such “performances are supposed to make you think about life”. She argued there are no grounds for her office to intervene.

Meanwhile, an NGO, OMZRiK, has announced that it will notify prosecutors about a potential crime, noting that “the Polish criminal code prohibits showing violent scenes to children, especially those with elements of sexual violence”.

Main image credit: Ośrodek Monitorowania Zachowań Rasistowskich i Ksenofobicznych / Facebook

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.