Priests from scandal-hit Polish diocese charged with sexual offences against minors

Two priests from a Catholic diocese in Poland that has been hit by a series of scandals in recent years have been charged with sexual offences. A third former priest from the same diocese has also been charged with fraud allegedly committed during his time as a clergyman.

The announcement by prosecutors came as the local bishop revealed that the diocese of Sosnowiec is establishing a special commission to investigate the scandals. Those include a drug-fuelled sex party in a church apartment last year that led to a priest being convicted and the resignation of the previous bishop.

The first of the accused is a 63-year-old priest (who, like the other two, has not been named by prosecutors). He has been charged with committing two sexual offences against minors and placed in pretrial detention.

The second suspect, a priest aged 67, was charged with a total of nine “offences against sexual freedom and morals to the detriment of identified minors”. He has not been held in custody but is subject to police supervision and is banned from contact with the victims and working with children.

Prosecutors did not disclose details of the alleged acts carried out by the men. However, a spokesman for Sosnowiec district prosecutor’s office, Bartosz Kilian, indicated that 11 children had been victims of the priests.

Explaining why only one of the accused has been placed in detention, Kilian told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that it is because the “reprehensibility and social harmfulness of the conduct committed by the detained suspect far exceeds the offences committed by the suspect who was released”.

The third defendant is a former clergyman, also aged 67. He heard a charge of two counts of fraud relating to the time when he was still a priest.

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Following news of the arrests on Wednesday, Sosnowiec diocese issued a statement saying that one of the clergymen accused of sexual abuse had been banned from public pastoral ministry for over a year and prohibited from contacting children and youth.

“This occurred after a report of a potential criminal act received by the then bishop,” said diocese spokesman Przemysław Lech. “[Since then] the priest was away from the parish, in a place designated by the bishop.”

The second of the priests charged with abuse was suspended from his duties as a parish priest by the church on Wednesday. Additionally, he was banned from having contact with children.

“The third [man] is not a priest. He was transferred to the lay state in 2019. The diocesan curia has not known his whereabouts since 2016,” Lech added.

The proceedings against the three men were initiated based on material obtained during another investigation conducted in the Sosnowiec diocese into the murder of a 26-year-old deacon at a church property last year.

According to prosecutors’ findings, the man was killed by a 40-year-old priest, who shot him six times and stabbed him multiple times and then took his own life, reports PAP. Proceedings in this case were discontinued due to the death of the perpetrator.

On Tuesday this week, the bishop of Sosnowiec, Artur Ważny, told PAP that the diocese is establishing a commission to “investigate the events that have stirred public opinion”.

Ważny took office in June following the resignation last year of his predecessor, Grzegorz Kaszak, following reports that a priest in his diocese organised a “sex party” at which a male prostitute lost consciousness and was denied medical treatment. The priest was given an 18-month prison sentence this year.

Main image credit: Polar123/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

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