Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
In the first ruling of its kind in Poland, a Catholic bishop has been found guilty of failing to promptly inform the law enforcement authorities about allegations of child sex abuse committed by priests under his authority.
Andrzej Jeż, the bishop of Tarnów, was handed a non-custodial sentence that will require him to donate 25% of his earnings for two years to a charity that supports victims of child sexual abuse.
However, the verdict can still be appealed, and the diocese of Tarnów has already announced that it “disagrees with the court’s ruling” and that an appeal will be filed.
Pierwszy taki wyrok w Polsce. Biskup skazany za zwlekanie z powiadomieniem prokuratury o pedofilach w sutannach
Ordynariusz tarnowski bp Andrzej Jeż jest pierwszym biskupem oskarżonym o zbyt późne powiadomienie prokuratury o pedofilii w Kościele. I pierwszym, który który został…
— Bartosz T. Wieliński 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦🇬🇱 (@Bart_Wielinski) October 29, 2026
The case relates to alleged abuse by two priests who worked under Jeż’s authority. They can be identified only as Stanisław P. and Tomasz K. under Polish privacy law.
In 2022, prosecutors discontinued an investigation into allegations against Stanisław P. because the statute of limitations had expired, despite concluding that he had harmed at least 95 children and committed “sexual acts” against 77 of them over several decades in parishes in Poland and Ukraine.
In 2023, prosecutors decided to charge Tomasz K., who allegedly sexually abused children as early as 2018. However, they have been unable to formally present the charges to him because of his poor health, news website OKO.press reported earlier this year.
Though Jeż was not accused of complicity in the alleged abuse itself, he was charged under a 2017 law making it a criminal offence not to “immediately notify the authorities” of “credible information” about sexual abuse of minors. The offence is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Investigators say that, although an internal church probe into Stanisław P. was initiated in the 2000s and a decision to remove him from the clergy was made in 2013, Jeż only notified the prosecutor’s office in 2020. In the case of Tomasz K., the bishop notified prosecutors only in 2021.
In court, prosecutor Marcin Stępień said that Jeż’s failure to report the abuse promptly had allowed the statute of limitations to expire in the case of some of Stanisław P.’s victims.
Stępień also noted that the bishop had only come forward with the information when media coverage brought the allegations against Stanisław P. to light, reports broadcaster TVN.
A church commission set up to investigate child sex abuse in a Catholic diocese in Poland has identified at least 50 victims and 29 abusers.
It also found that bishops repeatedly failed to take action when credible reports of abuse were submitted to them https://t.co/MRNl5vWp4E
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 13, 2026
Prosecutors sought a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, and a fine of 20,000 zloty (€4,550). Jeż, however, denied the allegations against him and sought an acquittal. He argued that he had reported the alleged abuse to the authorities as soon as there was credible information.
On Thursday, the court found the bishop guilty, giving him a sentence known as “restriction of liberty” (ograniczenie wolnośći), under which a convict is not imprisoned but required to do some kind of social good.
In Jeż’s case, the court ordered that 25% of his salary for two years be donated to the Empowering Children Foundation (Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę), which supports victims of child abuse. He was additionally ordered to pay 20,000 zloty to the Fund for Assistance to Victims and Post-Penitentiary Assistance.
In a statement after the verdict was issued, the diocese of Tarnów said that it “disagreed with the court’s ruling” and that, after a written justification from the court was reviewed, “an appeal will be filed”.
The Catholic church in Poland has in recent years been hit by a series of revelations regarding historical abuse of minors by members of the clergy and allegations that bishops covered cases up.
The Vatican has taken action against a number of Polish bishops over the issue. Most recently, in 2024, the Vatican announced the resignation of the bishop of Łowicz, Andrzej Dziuba, due to his “negligence in handling cases of sexual abuse against minors”.
In February, a commission created by the diocese of Sosnowiec following a series of scandals announced that it had identified at least 50 children who were harmed and 29 people suspected of abusing minors, most of them members of the clergy.
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: Jakub Wlodek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.
