The Polish Church's clerical abuse apology

By Clémence Houdaille
LaCroix International
June 16, 2019

https://bit.ly/2FacdgY

In Warsaw, demonstrators march with a map of Poland showing 255 cases of paedophilia in October 2018. Photo by ALIK KEPLICZ

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta is the man Pope Francis trusts to lead the world-wide fight against pedophilia in the Church.

And that's just as well because he is set to meet with bishops of the powerful Polish Catholic Church, which is facing a wave of revelations about sexual abuse by priests.

A plenary session has been scheduled for June 14 in Swidnica, south western Poland, at which the bishops will meet Archbishop Scicluna.

When on May 16 they announced the visit, the Polish bishops were careful to specify that he was responding to an invitation made a year earlier.

But it is difficult not to make the link between this visit and the release on May 11 of a documentary implicating several Polish bishops in the alleged protection of pedophile priests.

Directed and produced by two brothers, Tomasz and Marek Sekielski, 'Tell No One' is highly critical of Polish church authorities.

It explicitly names alleged attackers, as well as bishops suspected of having remained silent, and cites evidence to back-up various claims.

The documentary has already been viewed more than 22 million times, causing shock waves in a country where Catholicism remains dominant.

Before the film was completed, the Sekielski brothers were in contact with about 100 alleged victims.

"Since the film was released, we have received an avalanche of testimonies," said Marek.

They were also contacted by many Catholic faithful who were shocked and upset by what was revealed.

Neat and elegant Anna Frankowska, who is in her fifties, made her own preparations for the plenary session in Swidnica with Archbishop Scicluna.

"We asked to meet him, in vain," explained the lawyer, who has taken up the cause of victims of pedophile priests to the point of giving up a position in a prestigious law firm to fully engage in the 'Don't Be Afraid Foundation.'

Frankowska wanted to question Archbishop Scicluna about his investigation and report on a pedophilia scandal in Chile last year that was followed by the resignation of almost all the nation's bishops.

She talks about being inundated with calls to a victim support unit set up in Poland by the foundation.

Anthropologist and theologian Stanislaw Obirek believes that the Church was in the past too "paralyzed" to talk about abuses for reasons that go beyond the impacts of clericalism.

"This is a legacy of the communist period, when false accusations against priests were common to silence these enemies of the regime," he explained.

Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznań, President of the Bishops' Conference, expressed his regrets following the immense success of the documentary. It's a sign of a change, Obirek added.

Apologizing to all those who were affected by what were criminal sins, Bishop Gadecki acknowledged that he had not done enough to fight it.

This constituted a radical change of view.

Two months earlier, the same Archbishop Gadecki considered pedophilia in the Church to be a "very well chosen ideological slogan" aimed at "weakening the authority of the Church."

Now there is the issue of how people should judge the Polish bishops' requests for forgiveness.

"I want to give credit to Bishop Gadecki for his sincerity," says Obirek. "It's a good start."

Father Adam Strojny, vicar at Wesola Parish on the outskirts of the capital, Warsaw, believes the Church should have in the past been more public about child sex abuse by members of the clergy.

"But it is clear today that there is an awareness of the seriousness of the abuses," Father Strojny said.

He also noted the "humility" of recent statements by the Polish primate, Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno, on the issue.

Archbishop Polak said: "The enormous suffering of the victims causes pain and shame (...). I apologize for any injury caused by the people of the Church. Previously, we conceived Poland as a devout island in the middle of an unhealthy world. Today, we are ashamed that we did not know how to react."

Marek shrugs his shoulders and shows a page on his smartphone.

Dated June 10, four days before Archbishop Scicluna's scheduled arrival, an article in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper reveals that the president of the Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Poznan refused to provide courts with documents concerning a priest in his diocese accused of abusing a young boy.

That amounts to proof, for Sekielski, of the hypocrisy of the episcopacy.

In an interview with the KAI news agency on Monday, June 10, Archbishop Polak explained that he expected Scicluna to help him apply a new 'Apostolic Letter' published last May on sexual abuse by clerics.

Obirek said wryly that some Polish bishops officially refer to Archbishop Scicluna as a good friend who would help them resolve problems.

"But in reality, at least five bishops, accused of protecting pedophile priests, could resign," Obirek stated bluntly.

The Don't Be Afraid Foundation in February provided Pope Francis with the names of 24 Polish bishops in relation to alleged covering-up of abuses.

"We are still waiting for a response from Pope Francis to this report," said Artur Nowak, who is deeply involved in the Foundation's work.

Nowak, a lawyer, was 10 years old when he was abused by a priest for the first time.

Today, he is fighting for other victims and for Polish society to open its eyes to the reality of clerical wrongdoing.

Nowak was pleased to discover an article about a demonstration on Pentecost Sunday by parishioners from Ruszow in the south-east of the country.

"They asked for the dismissal of a priest suspected of abusing a 9-year-old girl," he said.

He was asked if that was an indication that lay people no longer wanted to accept everything that priests do.

Immediately, the lawyer responded that his own sister reproached him for having covered his family with shame by agreeing to speak in the Sekielski documentary.

The very religious faithful wanted to protect the image of the church as an institution, rather than bring about change, he said.

For Obirek, it is not a question of destroying the Church, but of purifying it.

"Even bishops have recognized the importance of the Sekielski documentary in raising awareness of the problem," he said.

"The Church has never acted on its own initiative, but is always driven by external elements," he added.

Meanwhile, Frankowska believes Church responses must not be further delayed.

"We hope that Scicluna doesn't just come to listen, but that he has a plan," she said.

"We are counting on the support of the Vatican, because it is clear that the Polish Church alone will do nothing. "We are waiting for action."

The list of measures being sought include creation of a victim assistance fund, the opening of Church archives and collaboration with civil prosecuting authorities as well as the clarification of all responsibilities for dealing with abusive priests.

Pope Francis last November appointed Archbishop Scicluna as secretary adjunct of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to head the fight against sexual abuse in the Church.