The head of Poland’s Catholic episcopate, Tadeusz Wojda, has been accused of negligence in dealing with reports of sexual abuse carried out by one of his subordinates. In one case, he allegedly argued that no abuse had taken place because “it was just groping”.
In response to the claims, the spokesman for Wojda’s
Czy Stolica Apostolska będzie sprawdzać poprawność działań przewodniczącego polskiego episkopatu w sprawach dotyczących wykorzystania seksualnego?
Zbigniew Nosowski w swoim śledztwie ujawnia zarzuty, z jakimi mierzy się nowy przewodniczący @EpiskopatNews https://t.co/CFd8wRGmxF— Więź (@wiez1958) May 9, 2024
The claims were made last week in a lengthy article by
He noted that details of Wojda’s alleged negligence had in fact first been published in February 2022 in Tygodnik Powszechny, another Catholic news magazine, but had gone largely unnoticed because they were published at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Vatican has punished two Polish bishops over their "negligence" in responding to cases of sexual abuse against minors by members the Catholic clergy https://t.co/XVOqCqSGwr
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 29, 2021
Wojda is accused of failing to properly respond to reports made in 2021 by two women who said they had been sexually abused as teenagers by a priest working in the Gdańsk archdiocese
In one case, the priest is accused of masturbating in front of the woman when she was aged 13. State prosecutors investigated the case but were unable to proceed due to the statute of limitations having expired.
In the other case, the priest is accused of sexually abusive behaviour towards the second woman when she was aged 18 (and therefore legally an adult but who, according to
, should have been regarded under church rules as a “vulnerable adult” with special protections).„Złoży pani przysięgę na Biblię? – słyszy Marta, gdy pod koniec września stawia się w Trybunale Metropolitalnym w Gdańsku. – Wtedy zeznania będą bardziej wiarygodne”. Mówi, że poczuła się jak oszustka.
Czytaj reportaż Stanisława Zasady: https://t.co/kQlWs4KxCe
Il. Magda Wolna pic.twitter.com/be4ad9xQ9L
— Tygodnik Powszechny (@tygodnik) February 28, 2022
Both women – who, along with the accused priest, have not been named by
– outline a consistent pattern of the Gdańsk archdiocese failing to properly respond to their official complaints.They say Wojda failed to reply to letters they sent him regarding the accusations. The woman abused as an adult and her lawyer say that, during a meeting in person, the archbishop said the case did not involve sexual abuse because “it was just groping” and “there was no full intercourse”.
“[I am] not responsible for what adults do,” Wojda then reportedly said, though the lawyer says the archbishop later apologised for the wording he had used.
A Catholic diocese in Poland has asked a court to determine the sexual orientation of a victim who was abused by a priest as a child and whether he took “pleasure in the intimate relationship”.
The victim was 12 years old when the abuse began https://t.co/26ngoSy4bQ
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 11, 2022
The priest who was accused of abuse continued to work in the Gdańsk archdiocese, and last year was made deputy chaplain in a psychiatric hospital, “giving him the opportunity to have unrestricted contact with people in deep mental crisis, including minors”, writes
.However, he has now left that position and has been banned from contact with children and other young people.
Meanwhile, the church official who took the two women’s testimony is accused of inaccurately reporting what they said. He was later appointed by Wojda as rector of Gdańsk Theological Seminary despite the archbishop knowing of the complaints against him.
The Gdańsk archdiocese also reportedly did not provide support to the women who had accused the church officials of sexual abuse, as is required under Vatican rules.
Poland’s Catholic church is providing every parish in the country with posters explaining how people can report cases of sex abuse as well as presenting the types of support available to victims https://t.co/3zFRoYnFQV
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 10, 2023
In response to
“It should be emphasised that the canonical process is still ongoing,” added the statement. “Taking into account the good of all parties, especially the injured parties, and maintaining the ecclesiastical legal order, the archdiocese is making every effort to ensure the process is objective and ends in reaching the truth.”
Rzecznik archidiecezji gdańskiej wydał oświadczenie w nawiązaniu do artykułu „«Czy Ksiądz Biskup mógłby w końcu usłyszeć mój głos?» Pytania do abp. Tadeusza Wojdy”, opublikowanego 9 maja 2024 roku.https://t.co/MhJ2bnZiFC
— eKAI (@ekaipl) May 10, 2024
The Catholic church in Poland has in recent years been hit by a series of revelations of cases of sex abuse by members of the clergy and of negligence in dealing with them by hierarchs, a number of whom have been punished by the Vatican as a result.
When Wojda was appointed as the new head of the episcopate in March this year, a leading Catholic commentator, Tomasz Terlikowski, called him “one of the worst possible choices”.
Terlikowski said that Wojda “does not handle sex abuse cases properly” and that Gdańsk “is one of the most problematic dioceses in this matter”.
“An archbishop who helps perpetrators, not victims, has become the new chairman of the [episcopate],” tweeted Terlikowski at the time, saying that the decision shows “what the episcopate thinks about victims and the protection of minors”.
Wszyscy, którzy walczyli o tę sprawę zostali wycięci. I to by było na tyle w kwestii tego, co Episkopat sądzi o ofiarach, skrzywdzonych, o ochronie małoletnich. Ładnie się chłopaki bawią. 2/2
— Tomasz Terlikowski (@tterlikowski) March 14, 2024
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Main image credit: EpiskopatNews/T. Margańska (under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
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.