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The Vatican has decided to dismiss from clerical state a Polish priest who in April last year was handed an 18-month prison sentence after being found guilty of four charges relating to a drug-fuelled sex party he held with two men in his apartment.
One of the charges against the priest, who can be named only as Tomasz Z. under Polish privacy law, related to “taking advantage of the helplessness of another person and causing them to have sexual intercourse or submit to a sexual act”.
The other charges pertained to failing to provide help to a person whose life and health were in danger, and the supply of psychoactive and psychotropic substances.
Following its own investigation, the local diocese of Sosnowiec initiated proceedings that have now led to the Vatican completing the judicial canonical process and, as a result, removing Tomasz Z. from priesthood.
A priest has been given an 18-month prison sentence after being found guilty of four charges relating to a drug-fuelled sex party he held with two men in his apartment.
The case caused a scandal last year and led to the resignation of the local bishop https://t.co/JJbCtoLMxv
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 10, 2024
The incident in question took place in August 2023 in the town of Dąbrowa Górnicza in southern Poland.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza – the newspaper which first broke the story – during the party the participants took potency medication and drank alcohol. When one of the guests lost consciousness and his friend called an ambulance, Tomasz Z. prevented the paramedics from entering his apartment until police intervened.
The case caused a national scandal. As a result, the local bishop, Grzegorz Kaszak, initially apologised for the priest’s actions then in October submitted his resignation to the Vatican. The local diocese also removed Tomasz Z. from performing all church functions.
The priest was then presented with charges and placed in pretrial detention for two months in January last year. In April, he was handed an 18-month prison sentence by a Polish court.
Przemysław Lech, spokesman for the diocese of Sosnowiec, today told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that on Saturday the diocese “received a letter from the Vatican Dicastery for the Clergy, in which the Holy See informed the bishop of Sosnowiec that Tomasz Z. had been disciplinarily transferred to the lay state [removed from priesthood]”.
He added that “in accordance with the provisions of canon law, the diocesan curia first passed the decision of the Holy See to the person concerned [Tomasz Z.]. We are now passing this information on to the clergy, the faithful and all those affected by the case.”
The spokesman also said that the incident will be investigated by the “Clarification and Correction” committee for sensitive matters of the diocese of Sosnowiec which was set up last October by the new local bishop, Artur Ważny.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT/ Wikimedia (under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
