A priest has taken his own life after it was revealed that he had been fined for an indecent act – reportedly masturbation – on a public beach. Media linked to the conservative ruling party have blamed an opposition politician for launching a “witch hunt” against the priest.
On Friday, Dominika Jackowski, a councillor in the city of Szczecin in northwest Poland, posted a screenshot of a message from an unnamed woman that included a photo of a man on the beach.
The woman claimed that the man was a “paedophile priest from Szczecin [who] masturbated in front of my daughter”. She said that, when the police arrived, the priest told them he had “got excited by the sight of the sea”.
Mama małej dziewczynki powiedziała mi w rozmowie że ksiądz masturbował się patrząc na jej córkę. Tak też zeznała policjantom. Policja tymczasem utrzymuje, że masturbacja była ale nie w obecności dziecka. Ktoś mi to może wytłumaczyć? pic.twitter.com/wlhKPSOciN
— Dominika Jackowski Radna Miasta Szczecin (@Dom_Jackowski) August 19, 2023
In a post on Facebook (later deleted by the platform) Jackowski named the priest and said he taught Catholic catechism classes in a local school and preschool, while also preparing children for First Communion. She added that the priest had been fined by the police for his actions on the beach.
A local public broadcaster, Radio Szczecin, contacted the police, who confirmed that the man had been fined for “indecent behaviour”. However, they denied he had done this in front of children, and said he would have been arrested if that had been the case. A police spokeswoman told private broadcaster TVN the same.
In a further statement today, however, Dominika Jackowski insisted that police had been present during the incident, as confirmed by the fact that the mother who shared the screenshot with her and who had called the police was with her daughter at the time.
On Saturday, the priest’s religious order announced that, in response to claims relating to him on social media, “the case has been reported to the police and transferred to the competent authorities”.
“The priest himself informed his superior about the incident,” a spokesman for the Salesian order told TVN. He also confirmed that the priest served as a catechism teacher and had, until now, enjoyed an “impeccable reputation”.
However, later the same day, the religious order announced that the 57-year-old priest had died.
A reporter from Radio Szczecin, Tomasz Duklanowski, revealed that the priest had “thrown himself under a train” after being “unjustifiably accused of paedophilia by Civic Platform councillor Dominika Jackowski”.
The centrist Civic Platform (PO) party to which Jackowski belongs is Poland’s main opposition. Radio Szczecin, like other public broadcasters, is under the influence of the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Duklanowski himself was this year accused of politically motivated reporting that helped publicly identify the son of a PO politician as a victim of sexual abuse by another member of PO. The 15-year-old subsequently took his own life.
The suicide of the 15-year-old son of an opposition MP has sparked grief but also anger towards the ruling party and media associated with it, whose reporting helped publicly identify the boy as the victim of sexual abuse https://t.co/CMhwFMOpfq
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 5, 2023
After the suicide of the priest – whom media are naming only as Piotr Z. under Polish privacy law – media linked to and supportive of PiS suggested that Jackowski was responsible for his death.
“Unjustifiably accused of paedophilia, a priest from Szczecin committed suicide after a KO councillor’s witch hunt,” declared state broadcaster TVP, which is a mouthpiece for the ruling party.
“PO councillor unleashed a witchhunt, a priest’s data appeared online. The cleric threw himself under a train,” headlined conservative news website Niezależna. It said the priest had faced “false accusations of paedophilia”.
In her statement today, however, Jackowski said that she had been “purely motivated by the welfare of the children”. She said that the priest’s decision to take his own life may have been motivated by the fact that such a serious “case could not be quietly swept under the carpet”.
Bezpodstawnie oskarżony o pedofilie ksiądz ze Szczecina popełnił samobójstwo po nagonce radnej KO
WIĘCEJ: https://t.co/InfICF6jSJ#wieszwięcej pic.twitter.com/ju3ruBQg5M
— tvp.info 🇵🇱 (@tvp_info) August 19, 2023
Poland’s Catholic church has in recent years been hit by a wave of revelations of historical sex abuse by priests and accusations that they were covered up at the time by bishops. The Vatican has punished a number of Polish bishops for “negligence” in dealing with such cases.
While the church has now expressed remorse and launched efforts to support victims, it has also suggested that some accusations are being invented or exaggerated for political purposes.
The ruling party, which has close ties to the church, has also defended it amid the accusations. PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński declared that attacks on the church are part of attempts by “external enemies to destroy Poland”.
If Poland is to have a future, attacks on the Catholic church must not be tolerated, says Kaczyński.
"We must reject those trying to destroy Poland, collaborating with external enemies," he warned after a mass marking the anniversary of his mother's death https://t.co/f6KOJ0jdvy
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 17, 2022
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Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
