Jerzy Popiełuszko
Jerzy Popiełuszko
Jerzy
Popiełuszko (1947-1984) was a charismatic priest who was first sent to
strikers in the Warsaw Steelworks. Thereafter he was associated with workers
and trade unionists from the Solidarity movement who opposed the Communist
regime in Poland. He was an adamant anti-communist and in his sermons he
interwove spiritual exhortations with political messages, criticizing the
atheist Communist system and motivating people to protest. After the
introduction of Martial Law, he organized material aid for the families of
the interned Solidarity activists. The Catholic Church was, during the
period of Martial Law, the only force that could voice protest comparatively
openly, with the regular celebration of Mass presenting opportunities for public
gatherings in churches. Popiełuszko's sermons became famous throughout
Poland for their uncompromising stance against the regime. The Security
Forces tried to silence or intimidate him. When it did not work they
fabricated evidence against him and he was arrested in 1983 but soon
released on intervention of the clergy and pardoned by an amnesty. It is said
that a car accident was set up to kill Jerzy Popiełuszko on October 13, 1984 but
he escaped it. The alternative plan was to kidnap him and it was carried
out on October 19, 1984. The priest was beaten, tortured and murdered
by three Security Police officers. His body was dumped into the Vistula
Water Reservoir near Wloclawek where it was recovered on October 30, 1984.
The news of the political murder caused an uproar throughout Poland, and the
murderers and one of their superiors were convicted of the crime. His death was
one of the last acts of the state terror aimed at its own citizens in the long
chain of post-war history.
‘It is the cross of our homeland that for several decades it has been the
scene of efforts to deprive the people, especially young people, of God, and to
impose on all an ideology which has nothing to do with the one thousand year
long Christian tradition of our nation." Three years ago, the Vatican
started a process of beatification of the slain priest...
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