Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko. He died 40 years ago today, at the age of just 37, on October 19, 1984, in his home country of Poland, then under Communist rule. He was arrested and killed in a brutal way by the nation’s secret police, evidently on the express orders of the KGB in Moscow. It was thought that his death would end the influence of his heart and soul, yet… we still remember him today, after 40 years
Pope John Paul II and Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko. He was beatified on June 6, 2010 by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI
Pope John Paul II venerates the tomb of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko (link) in 1991.
Popiełuszko was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest decoration, in 2009.
After death, he was buried in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Warsaw, where millions of visitors came to pay him tribute, including famous politicians like then U.S. Vice President George Bush in September 1987.
“A Christian is called in Jesus Christ to victory. Such victory is inseparable from hardship, from suffering, just as Christ’s Resurrection is inseparable from the Cross.” —St. John Paul II, speaking of the death of Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko in the autumn of 1984
Letter #41, 2024, Saturday, October 19: Jerzy
When his dead body was found, those who saw the corpse said they had “never seen such a maltreated and tormented human body.”
He had been beaten and tortured.
Thus, in agony, died Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko.
Today is the 40th anniversary of the day in 1984 when a Polish priest was kidnapped, and then killed, only to become the conscience of his nation.
As Poland faces difficulties today, 40 years later, the Polish people may turn again for inspiration to the example of this courageous priest, who gave up his life for the faith and for the freedom of Poland.
Dear Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko, we pray that you watch over Poland, and also watch over all who bear a courageous witness to freedom and to faith throughout the world.
—RM
John Paul II on Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko: Freedom in Truth
(link to the Polish original, on Radio Maria)
October 19, 2024 1:28 PM/in Information, Poland
Radio Maryja
John Paul II, together with his compatriots and the Universal Church, experienced the drama of the kidnapping and death of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko, who was killed at the hands of the communist security services in 1984.
When Poland regained its freedom in 1989, Pope John Paul II decided that Fr. Jerzy’s testimony was more important in the new era than during communist captivity.
He called him the patron of Poland’s presence in Europe.
***
John Paul II and Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko probably never met.
When the Pope was in Poland in 1983, the regime refused to grant the chaplain of “Solidarity” the necessary leave.
Fr. Jerzy, like all priests of his generation, was strongly influenced by the Polish Pope.
His sermons testify to this.
John Paul II knew about the ministry of the chaplain of Warsaw workers.
He knew his sermons.
He sent him greetings, as well as a rosary.
It was with this rosary that the hands of the murdered priest were clasped in the coffin on November 3, 1984.
***
A sacrifice that leads to resurrection
John Paul II, together with other Poles, participated in the drama of Father Jerzy’s kidnapping.
During the general audience and during the Angelus prayer in mid-October 1984, John Paul asked for prayer for his release, safe and sound, and appealed to the consciences of the kidnappers.
When the news came that Father Jerzy’s lifeless body had been found, the Pope very quickly understood that this martyrdom would have a decisive significance for Poland’s struggle for independence.
The very next day, October 31, 1984, at the general audience, he said: “A Christian is called in Jesus Christ to victory. Such victory is inseparable from hardship, from suffering, just as Christ’s Resurrection is inseparable from the Cross. And he has already won today — even if he were lying on the ground.”
At the next Wednesday audience he added: “This death is also a testimony. I pray for Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, I pray even more that good may grow from this death, just as Resurrection from the Cross.”
Testimony in times of freedom
Five years later, Poland was the first country in the communist bloc to regain freedom.
In these new conditions John Paul II once again reminded his compatriots of Father Jerzy’s attitude.
“Let the testimony of this priest, which does not expire, speak to us, a testimony which is important not only yesterday, but also today. Perhaps even more so today,” said the Pope at the general audience on October 31, 1990.
From that time on, he referred to the testimony of Father Jerzy, to show Poles how to relate to Europe and the changes taking place there.
On 14 February 1991, at an audience for Lech Wałęsa, John Paul emphasized that “Poland has never betrayed Europe! It felt responsible for the European community of nations. It expected help from it, but it was also able to die for it.”
In this context, the Pope recalled the unjust peace according to the provisions of the Yalta Conference. [That treaty divided Europe into two parts, west and east, by building an “Iron Curtain” between the two halves of the continent.]
He emphasized that the nation had never reconciled itself to it [to being placed behind the Iron Curtain] and had not succumbed to the ideology and totalitarianism imposed on it.
“Poland defended its dignity and rights with great difficulty and at the cost of great sacrifices,” said the Pope, emphasizing that the symbol of this was, among others, Father Jerzy.
Patron of Poland’s presence in Europe
Once again, John Paul II appealed to the chaplain of “Solidarity” several months later during his trip to his homeland.
At that time, he engaged in open polemics with those who postulated Poland’s return to Europe.
He emphasized that Poles do not have to return to Europe, because they are in it.
“We do not have to enter it, because we created it and created it with greater difficulty than those who are credited with or who claim the patent for Europeanness, exclusivity. (…)
“I wish, as the Bishop of Rome, to protest against such a qualification of Europe, Western Europe. This offends this great world of culture, Christian culture, from which we drew and which we co-created, co-created also at the cost of our suffering. (…)
“European culture was created by the martyrs of the first three centuries, it was also created by martyrs to the east of us in recent decades — and here in recent decades.
“This is how Father Jerzy created it.
“He is the patron of our presence in Europe at the cost of the sacrifice of his life, just like Christ.
“Just as Christ, just as Christ has the right of citizenship in the world, he has the right of citizenship in Europe, because he gave his life for all of us,” he said during his homily in Włocławek on June 7, 1991.
So that the conscience does not grow cold
Why did John Paul II attach such great importance to the testimony of Fr. Jerzy in the new times, after the fall of Marxist totalitarianism?
The Pope himself gave the answer to this, in a way, by quoting, during the already quoted audience in 1990, several statements made years before by the martyr-priest: “In order to remain a spiritually free man, one must live in the truth. Living in the truth means bearing witness to the outside world, admitting to it and demanding it in every situation. The truth is unchanging. The truth cannot be destroyed by one decision or another, one law or another” (October 31, 1982).
“Let us put life in the truth first, if we do not want our conscience to grow cold” (February 27, 1983).
Exceptional interest of the Vatican media
It is worth emphasizing the exceptional interest of the Vatican media at that time in the case of the kidnapping and death of Fr. Popiełuszko.
Starting on October 22, 1984, the daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reported daily on the developments on its front page.
“All of Poland anxious about Father Jerzy Popiełuszko”; “Moments of horror in Poland after kidnapping of a priest”; “All of Poland mobilizes in the case of Father Popiełuszko” — these were the headlines from the first days after the kidnapping.
On October 25, the Vatican daily reported, still on the front page, the arrest of the kidnappers, and the next day quoted the words of General Jaruzelski, who condemned the kidnapping.
In subsequent editions, L’Osservatore Romano quotes another appeal from the Pope and reactions from around the world, including the telling words of the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger: “We live in the time of murderers.”
—Vatican Radio
And now, here is a testimony from a Polish journalist, Anna Artymiak, who was a child in Poland when Fr. Popiełuszko died.
Anna, who lives in Rome, and who has been a collaborator of Inside the Vatican for more than 15 years, tells us in her own words what it meant to be a child in Poland under Communism, and to hear of the brutal death of “Fr. Jerzy.”
Reflections on the Brutal Murder of a Saintly Priest
By Anna Artymiak
October 19, 2024, the 40th anniversary of the death of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko
I, along with my twin sister Kasia, were small children when Fr. Popieluszko was killed.
I don’t remember that day, but I remember my parents and my older brother Jacek talking about Fr. Popieluszko at home. His memory was present in most of the Catholic homes. And in catechism class.
It was a time in Poland that, though very tough — as now we say — at least we knew who was the enemy.
We had great figure like Card. Wyszynski, Fr. Popieluszko, John Paul II, whose words were a support and clear guidance in faith.
Now, we are missing clear and deep message, based on only the Gospel.
For many people from the West — which maybe we Poles perceived only in a positive light hoping that there is only truth in the media, that communism would not be not present in the thinking — we were only poor.
Maybe, we didn’t have access to many technical innovations, but there were beautiful, simple Catholic families. People fought to have churches. There places in Poland like Nowa Huta near Cracow, Krasnik and Swidnik near Lublin which were planned by the communists as cities without God. Finally, it was God who won.
Even now, many foreigners, some impressed, others with disrespect, tell me they remember people being poor, but the churches were full and beautiful. People were proud to have them. To me, it was our richness to offer to God the best we had.
We have a special devotion to the Eucharist in Poland. Thanks to Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, the new Missal wasn’t introduced in Poland as a revolution, so we didn’t have this division between liberals and progressive as in the West of Europe. This explains why when there is a difficult moment, we used to attend Mass. So, did Fr. Popieluszko. He was asked to say the Holy Mass for the intention of our country, of Poland. This made the communists angry, though he never made any comments on the politics.
The words from the Gospel “overcome evil with good” became Fr. Popielsuszko’s motto and drove the communists crazy. It was Moscow which asked the Polish communist goverment to kill Fr. Jerzy. With disrespect they used to ask: “When will this dog finally stop barking?” It was an organized plan to kill him.
Today, it has been 40 years since it happened. Still, many details about the murder are unknown. People who saw his body said they had never seen such a maltreated and tormented human body. His suffering is often compared to St. Fr. Andrzej Bobola, a Polish Jesuit father killed for the unity of the Church.
Probably, Fr. Popieluszko was killed later, not precisely on October 19th. The trial was never done well. Behind the murder stood General Czeslaw Kiszczak. One of the most dark figures of the communism time in Poland.
When I was at school, I read many articles, books on Fr. Popieluszko. I remember my surprise to learn that the name he received on baptism was Alfons. His mother Marianna chose it after St. Alfons Maria Liguori. She dedicated him to God. The Blessed Mother blessed this decision.
He changed his name to Jerzy before his priestly ordination, because of the negative connotations of name Alfons in Warsaw.
His mother was a very important figure in his life. Marianna educated her children in simple and deep faith, in love for Jesus Christ. Although she wanted Alfons to become a priest, she was surprised by his decision. She see in his decision God’s will.
His teachers didn’t like that he spent much time in the Church, that he was praying the rosary. When they asked his mother to come, she simply explained: “There is freedom of belief. Everybody lives as he/she wants.”
Jerzy served in the Archdiocese of Warsaw, although he was from the south of Poland, because he was attracted by the figure of Cardinal Wyszynski. The Primate of the New Millenium was an example of security in faith for the whole family. He wanted to grow as a priest next to him, next to his teaching, his example.
After the “matura” (high school diploma), Fr. Jerzy went on his own, without his parents’ knowledge, to Warsaw to apply for the seminary. He took the train for the first time in his life.
During his formation, Popieluszko was forced to do military service. He was asked to stand on the snow without shoes, because he didn’t want to give away his rosary. His parents learned how badly he was treated from his colleagues only when he was killed.
Fr. Jerzy had some American connections. He had a dog whom he called “Tajny” inspired by “tiny.” Though his friends started to call the dog “tajniak” which means “undercover agent” in Polish. Today, it sounds funny, but it must have been a bit dangerous when Fr. Jerzy was calling loudly “Tajniak” while having his house under surveillance by the secret service agents.
Part of his extended family moved to the USA after the murder of Popieluszko, because they were afraid for their lives. Once, some of them came to Rome with the siblings of Fr. Jerzy. I remember one saying that for them Fr. Jerzy was an “uncle of candy bars,” especially those foreign which were difficult to buy, and he was receiving them from some people.
After his death, there was founded in his last parish of St. Stanislaus Kosta in Warsaw a special guard to protect his tomb.
Today, the oldest members who remember his Masses travel around Poland to give witness to his life and service.
***
And here is a link to a brief discussion on Instagram on a different topic between myself and Anna Artymiak (link)
And finally, a brief biography of Fr. Jerzy, from the Polish website dedicated to his memory:
FR. JERZY POPIEŁUSZKO
Witnesses to the Christian faith who lived in the last century in both the East and the West were able to realize the Gospel in their lives despite hostility and persecution, often to the point of shedding blood. Witnesses, especially those who suffered martyrdom, are a great, eloquent sign that we are to admire and imitate. They confirm the vitality of the Church; they appear as a light for the Church and for humanity, because they allowed the light of Christ to shine in the darkness
—John Paul II, Ecclesia in Europa, 13
Historical outline
Servant of God Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko was born on September 14, 1947 in Okopy in the Podlasie region. He spent his early childhood in the village of his origin, where his parents, Marianna and Władysław, had a small estate. In nearby Suchowola he completed primary school and high school; there, as an altar boy, he became involved in parish ministry. After obtaining his secondary school certificate in 1965, he entered the Seminary in Warsaw.
The atmosphere of deep religious life in his family home, permeated with Marian piety, formed in him from an early age the features of a strong spirituality, which over time led him to a deep, mature faith and extraordinary pastoral service.
Jerzy took from his family home the conviction that God and divine matters are the most important values in life, which cannot be overshadowed or surpassed by any other.
During his seminary studies in the years 1966-1968, he did compulsory military service in a special military unit in Bartoszyce. Here he distinguished himself with great courage and perseverance in maintaining his religious beliefs and attitudes, for which he was constantly harassed and punished by the military command.
His stay in the unit seriously impaired his health.
Shortly after returning to the Seminary, he had to spend a long time in hospital and undergo thyroid surgery. After his ordination in 1972, he served as a vicar in parishes near Warsaw in Ząbki (1972-1975) and Anin (1975-1978), and then in Warsaw, in the Infant Jesus parish. In 1979-1980, he led catechesis for medical students in the university church of St. Anne. At that time, he also became the diocesan chaplain for healthcare.
Due to health reasons, in 1980 he was transferred as a resident to the parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Żoliborz. Since the August strikes in “Huta Warszawa”, he has been very devotedly involved in the pastoral care of the world of work, understanding it as a burning pastoral challenge for the Church of that time and an extraordinary opportunity to evangelize working environments, previously subjected to programmatic, mass atheism.
After the introduction of martial law, this direction of Fr. Jerzy found even greater depth in the extensive pastoral care of the persecuted, afflicted with physical and moral suffering or poverty.
From January 1982, he became very actively involved in the monthly Holy Masses for the homeland, soon giving them an extraordinary scope and spiritual depth, which began to attract larger and larger crowds of participants to these liturgical meetings.
In special homilies — based on the social encyclicals and the preaching of John Paul II and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński — he took up burning topics of religious and moral renewal, which were connected with current issues of a social and political nature.
In this context, he also spoke about the painful problems of the rulers trampling on elementary human rights, human dignity, violation of conscience, forced atheism and programmatic depravation to which society is subjected by the political system.
This teaching was in fact nothing more than a reminder of the social teaching of the Church.
In reaction to this service, the communist authorities launched a very large-scale campaign of defamation and repression against him, portraying him as a dangerous disrupter of the social order, a political agitator, and finally accusing him of anti-state activities of a political nature, which were accompanied by constant provocations from the police apparatus and court actions.
His arrest and murder
On the night of 19 October 1984, he was kidnapped by officers of the special services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and brutally murdered.
The funeral, which spontaneously gained the title of “historical” due to its religious and patriotic message and the number of over half a million participants, took place in Warsaw on 3 November.
The body of the martyred priest, at the urgent request of numerous groups, was laid to rest at the church in Żoliborz, where he conducted pastoral ministry.
The spreading fame of the martyrdom of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko, which arose spontaneously after his death, accompanied by the fame of the sanctity of his life, the extremely numerous graces – recorded directly in hundreds of cases – attributed to his intercession with God, then the requests addressed from Poland and abroad to the Bishop of Warsaw and also directly to the Holy See about the appropriateness of starting the beatification proceedings, led in 1997 to the opening by Cardinal Primate Józef Glemp of the canonical beatification process for martyrdom for the faith.
Since 2002, the procedural work has been continued in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome with a view to assessing the authenticity of his martyrdom in the legal and canonical sense.
Spiritual profile
Among the basic features of spirituality (1) that can be extracted from the observation of the life and pastoral ministry of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko and his sermons, writings and preserved documents, the following deserve special attention:
—Internal determination and simplicity in professing faith. It was already visible in his youth, when as an altar boy he very often covered the approximately five-kilometre distance between his family home and the parish church, in order to participate in the Holy Mass on a weekday. He did not stop his service as an altar boy, despite the fact that he was repressed by some teachers at school for this. He also demonstrated his moral clarity during his military service, especially in defending the right of clerics-soldiers to pray and practice other religious practices. This attitude also accompanied him during his pastoral work among workers, during which he was familiar with the principles proclaimed in the name of the Church. Thanks to this, many people discovered the richness of the Church’s social teaching. Although he could have withdrawn from this form of pastoral work, he did not do so, in the name of that faithfulness and consequently paid the price of his life for it.
—Sensitivity to others, especially those who were suffering. This characteristic was influenced by personal experiences related to illnesses acquired during military service and experienced during years of seminary studies and pastoral work in parishes, numerous hospital stays, as well as pastoral closeness to healthcare workers and students of the Warsaw Medical Academy. The indicated care for the sick was expressed, among others, by care (including material) at one of the social welfare homes in Warsaw’s Wola district, but also by special pastoral attention devoted to people persecuted by the political forces of the totalitarian state.
—Priestly nature of Christian-social service. Engaging within the framework of the integrally understood service of the Church in Poland, in solving current problems of public life related to the period of martial law, he did so not as a social activist, but – it must be emphasized – as a priest and pastor. Fulfilling his personal calling, he gathered around the altar people suffering because of their beliefs, humiliated, feeling wronged, giving their experiences a supernatural meaning and including their suffering in the Eucharistic sacrifice of love of Jesus Christ.
—A view of social problems from the perspective of faith. Although he was not a professional expert in the principles of Catholic social teaching, he was able to read the so-called “signs of the times”, most often related to the lack of respect for the subjectivity of the human person in the Marxist totalitarian system, especially during martial law. He proclaimed the basic Christian principles of social life: truth, justice, love, solidarity and the common good, while warning against hatred towards political opponents. He demonstrated deeply religious thinking about temporal matters. In his ministry, he did not limit himself to personal teaching, but organized training for social activists in the field of Catholic social teaching and charitable, legal and medical assistance for those imprisoned for their beliefs and their families. He led many believers to the sacramental life after long years of absence.
—Unconditional fidelity to the Church. In his teaching, he did not preach his own Christian-social concepts, but serving – as part of the Church’s service — the Truth, he drew abundantly from official documents of Church teaching, speeches by Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and other Polish bishops. He was also unconditionally loyal to his bishop.
Nevertheless, a feature that distinguished him significantly from Polish priests of that time was the ability — the gift of gathering people around matters of faith and matters related to social life.
This interest, later transformed into a great passion for spiritual and material help provided to so many, meant that in an almost prophetic way he ordered the paraphrased words of the prophet Isaiah to be printed on his first picture: “God sends me to preach the Gospel and to heal the wounds of the aching hearts.”
Careful researchers of Father Jerzy’s life will easily notice how these words grew in him, to ultimately bear wonderful fruit in his activity and martyrdom.
His interest in the issue of financial support for the Seminary was significant — Father Jerzy organised scholarships for clerics.
He was able to provide such assistance from his own funds, sometimes he mobilised others to do the same.
He considered supporting the training of young clergy to be a very important duty.
This is an important detail of his spiritual figure — Father Jerzy not only clung to people, but was able to see a needy person in a cleric, a child or a worker.
This focus on himself in his priestly, preaching and charitable work became for Father Jerzy the best and deepest form of proclaiming love — the basic principle of social life.
In his sermons, and he prepared them very carefully, he willingly referred to these principles and willingly sought them out in the teachings of Primate Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński, as well as the Holy Father John Paul II, who is proudly cited.
He clung to these quotes almost convulsively in sermons that he delivered during Holy Masses celebrated for the homeland.
With strong conviction, he joined the rich tradition of national education in the spirit of evangelical values.
He considered the Gospel and the Christian message of life flowing from it to be the Polish raison d’état.
He treated each of his speeches exceptionally seriously, preparing himself thoroughly for them through prayer, reading and sacramental confession.
“Political” involvement or Christian witness?
In the years 1980-1981, the Catholic Church in Poland — the hierarchy, most of the diocesan and monastic clergy and an active part of lay Catholics — supported the formation of central and local structures of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity”, established as a result of the August strikes in 1980.
This support was based on the natural and unsatisfied aspiration of the nation to live in truth, freedom and honesty.
The hierarchical Church has accepted the cultivation of these values as its duty, as an expression of Christian responsibility for the social life of the country.
The “Solidarity” movement received an unequivocal assessment from John Paul II as a movement towards the Christian renewal of social life, which was expressed in the Pope’s speech to the world of work on June 20, 1983 in Katowice, during his second apostolic journey to Poland:
“The whole world has followed — and continues to follow — with interest the events that have taken place in Poland since August 1980. What particularly gave food for thought to the broad public opinion is the fact that these events were primarily about the moral order associated with human work, and not only about increasing the pay for it. Also striking was the fact that these events were free from violence, that no one was killed or injured as a result of them. Finally, the fact that the events of the Polish world of work in the eighties bore a clear religious mark.”
After the Union was delegalized as a result of the introduction of martial law, the Catholic Church in Poland always remained a moral support for its members and a support for the realization of its moral ideals.
It was in this climate that Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, like many other pastors, undertook, on the orders of his then bishop, Cardinal Wyszyński, pastoral ministry to unionists before the introduction of martial law, and in an even broader sense during martial law.
People who were genuinely involved in the work of “Solidarity” were overwhelmingly Catholics, and as such they had the full right to ecclesiastical assistance in undertaking works resulting from their Christian mission in everyday life.
In the years 1981-1989, the Polish Episcopate stood guard over the interests of the Catholic Church and society affected by repression by the authorities introducing martial law on December 13, 1981.
During this period, in fact, it became the only social entity that held regular talks with the authorities, whose strategic goal was to restore democratic processes in Poland in the years 1980-1981, while the tactical goal was to respond to the negative effects of the authorities’ actions.
Standing on the legalism of the PRL authorities, the bishops could not and did not want to officially support the political underground, including warning priests against political involvement in support of a specific opposition group.
The difficulty in maintaining the lines developed by the bishops by active priests was that the interpretation of the limits of strictly religious activity of pastors was in the hands of the security apparatus and the prosecutor’s office, acting on the political orders of the communist party leadership.
In such an atmosphere, the heroic pastoral ministry of Father Jerzy, which brought about extremely wide-ranging results, was treated by the communist government as “political.”
It was a permanent programmatic element of the state propaganda apparatus, to perpetuate this very image of his activity, which then provided a pretext for “justified” action against him as an alleged threat to the state order.
When it comes to priests involved in the pastoral work of “Solidarity,” it can be said that the communist authorities were irritated by the typically religious forms of their presence at the Union. This was due to the following reasons:
In public opinion, the presence of priests at “Solidarity” gave it the character of a just fight in the clash with the authorities.
In the opinion of the unionists, the presence of Catholic priests among them strengthened them in the fight to change the system that was destroying the nation, the state and the Church.
In the opinion of the regime’s social analysts, the close presence of priests near the people of “Solidarity” at least weakened, if not outright violated, the strategy of the state authorities towards the Union.
Many of them admitted that it was the presence of priests that soothed the confrontational moods.
For this reason, the social and political clash, which was led by the Union, was conducted peacefully, despite countless provocations from the state authorities.
However, linking the activities of Fr. Jerzy solely with the political dimension was characteristic not only of the government’s communist propaganda, both Polish and Soviet.
This simplification, constantly repeated by the media in the Polish People’s Republic, often weighed on the assessment of facts also on the part of foreign journalists, which became a source of distortion in the information they sent to the world about what was happening in Warsaw’s Żoliborz.
The assessment of the nature of the activities of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko, conducted in the extremely complex political and social situation of the time, is aptly captured by two statements by bishops: Fr. Archbishop Ignacy Tokarczuk and Bishop Alojzy Orszulik. In reality, they constitute a kind of summary of the issues under consideration.
The first of them comes from a letter from Archbishop Tokarczuk, with whom Father Jerzy met several times to consult the content of his homilies delivered during the “Mass for the Homeland” — to PrelateTeofil Bogucki:
[On Father Popiełuszko]
“In his attitude and statements, one could see the proper hierarchy of values, consistent with the Gospel. He drew inspiration from the Gospel and the Gospel, together with the teaching of the Church, told him to serve people. Here, he was in full accordance with the attitude of the Polish Episcopate, expressed, among others, in the communiqués from the plenary conferences. The Church as such does not want to engage in politics in the sense of striving for power and taking up positions, or seeking benefits. However, it has not only the right but also the obligation to judge public and even political matters from a moral point of view. The Council Constitution on the Church in the Modern World clearly and distinctly sets these problems. He stuck to this line very consistently.
“In his assessment of social life, he did not so much emphasize the shortcomings and shadows as the positive side. He indicated the path of love even in relation to enemies.
“Although he himself and his sheep experienced more than one wrong and pain, he neither preached nor sought revenge or hatred. He indicated the path of love even in relation to enemies.
“Not only did he not have world-destructive intentions, but on the contrary – in his entire conduct he calmed down elements that were too hot, he indicated the paths of dialogue and peace.”
The second statement is a written statement by Bishop Alojzy Orszulik, submitted in January 2008, when he was asked by the Postulation of the Process to take a stance on his initial assessments of Fr. Jerzy’s activities. This statement is significant because its author, due to his participation on behalf of the Polish Episcopal Conference in the work of the Joint Commission for talks with the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic, had access to a multifaceted, broad view of the entirety of the issues of the then relations: the Polish People’s Republic government — the Catholic Church. This view allowed him to change his initially negative assessment of Father Jerzy, as someone whose behavior hindered the complicated dialogue between the Church and the government, to an image of authentic Christian testimony, culminating in martyrdom for the faith.
“Every priest who spoke on public matters was recorded on tape, analyzed and treated as an enemy of the communist state. On the other hand, the bishops and priests themselves, who defended the rights of the Church, the Nation, the persecuted people, especially workers, treated their speeches as an obligation resulting from the pastoral mission entrusted to them.
“I can say that the motives for repressing these priests stemmed from two sources. From hatred for them as priests and from hatred for their speeches. The person most targeted by the Security Service was Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko, who worked in the parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Żoliborz in Warsaw and was treated by Primate Stefan Wyszyński sent to the workers in the Warsaw Steelworks. In addition to them, representatives of the opposition intelligentsia gathered around Father Jerzy. They were also often his support. Father Jerzy Popiełuszko was blackmailed many times and even threatened with loss of life. However, he was unyielding and did not stop preaching the Word of God and the principles of Catholic Social Teaching […].
“In my opinion, Father Jerzy Popiełuszko was murdered because he was a priest and because he preached the teachings of Christ, although the perpetrators of the murder treated him as only an opponent of the communist system. He is a martyr for preaching Catholic Social Teaching stemming from the Gospel and the teaching of the Church, which aims to defend the dignity of man.”
The Message of the Servant of God
It is fully justified for Father Jerzy Popiełuszko should be counted among the witnesses of faith, martyrs, of whom John Paul II speaks in the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Europa (n. 13), that they shone like God’s lights in the darkness of the long night of evil, which was the time of the outpouring of hatred, manifested in contempt for the Law of God, for the dignity of man and at the same time in the persecution of the Church. In him, the unfathomable presence of the Redeemer and His grace was revealed, from which he drew strength to bear the highest witness to the “truth about God and man”. (3)
In numerous speeches about the Servant of God, John Paul II pointed out that his death carries a deeply evangelical dimension, which cannot be obscured by any other. The Holy Father said: “He cannot be treated only insofar as he served a certain cause in the political order, although this was a deeply ethical matter. He must be seen and read in the whole truth of his life. It must be read from the perspective of that inner man whom the Apostle asks in the Letter to the Ephesians” (Eph 3:14-16). (4)
When it comes to the most striking lines of the message of the Servant of God, the first to emerge is his testimony given to “the truth about God and man.” Since the basis of his ministry was the heroic love of God leading to the proclamation of the Gospel of hope in its deepest dimensions, good can flow from his death for the Church and the world, just as “the Resurrection from the Cross.”(5)
This martyr priest speaks with an example of extraordinary pastoral sensitivity to people who are suffering, broken, immersed in error, with lost hope. He was able to bend down to them with love, to help them rise in the spirit of evangelical renewal. He appeared as a tireless apostle and minister of the sacrament of penance, in which those who came to him discovered the face of God, the merciful Father towards the “prodigal son”. He continued to provide such service even when, after a false accusation and provocation by security agents, he was placed in pretrial detention. Fr. Jerzy gained moral authority the most precisely through his charismatic service in the sacrament of penance.
He showed very convincingly that closeness to God, reliance on God’s law and openness to God’s grace create the basis for building Christian culture and civilization, which in turn is a guarantee of authentic human progress. He was able to proclaim convincingly that only the Gospel is able to change the face of the world. But this is a very demanding program, because it always assumes the fulfillment of three conditions: faithfulness to the truth, faithfulness to conscience — a right conscience is an irreplaceable light on the path of truth — and as a third condition, a personal sacrifice of love, without which it is impossible to put great Christian ideals into practice. The method of Christian struggle with evil, tirelessly confirmed by the life of the Servant of God, is organically connected with this program, i.e. that evil can only be overcome with goodness, with love.
In such a context, Fr. Jerzy also showed how important healthy patriotism, cultivating one’s own history and tradition of values, are for Christian civilization and its growth, which at that time strongly contrasted with the spirit of communist internationalism.
It should be noted that the fruits of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko‘s work, as in the case of all great men of God, in reality go beyond pastoral dimensions.
Since his death, which became an extraordinary shock and moral awakening for the country, it was no longer possible to stop the process of spiritual renewal of the nation that had begun, which consequently led to liberation from the rule of communism. We can say that in a sense he prepared the great changes that took place in the country ten years later.
The case of the Servant of God gives the Church once again a convincing example that Christian martyrs make the greatest contribution to human culture, becoming promoters of an authentic order of life. They confirm that the future of the world belongs to people of peace, who, by virtue of their roots in Christ — like Father Jerzy — are able to overcome evil with good. He also shows how important and irreplaceable his authentic priestly ministry was in the process of spiritual and political transformation in Poland.
In the person of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, the Church’s conviction that priestly identity reaches its full maturity while maintaining the spirit of fidelity to the teaching of the Church and in a climate of fervent Marian spirituality is confirmed once again.
How authentic this service was is confirmed from another perspective by the extraordinary number of graces attributed to his intercession with God. This phenomenon continues uninterrupted.
A closer consideration of these graces still leads to a similar conclusion: these graces always contribute to the strengthening of faith and an ever deeper religious life.
The time of over twenty years of private worship, the documentation of the fame of martyrdom and graces, confirm that Father Jerzy appears not only as a living model to imitate, but is a true intercessor with God.
While during his earthly life he was a strong point of reference regarding the Christian path, now he strengthens his testimony also with the numerous graces he has requested.
It can be added that the beatification process of the Servant of God, Father Jerzy Popiełuszko also indirectly recalls the truth about the political and social system, in which the reference to God’s law was programmatically eliminated.
It is another reminder of the dramatic lesson provided by the history of humanity, that a world separated from God turns inexorably against itself, despite significant actions in the legislative field.
The martyrdom of Fr. Jerzy is a loud cry of love, confirmed by the price of shedding blood to help break free from such confusion
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Spiritual profile of Fr. Jerzy
By Fr. Teofil Bogucki
People who did not know him ask what he was like in everyday life, in company, what his spiritual face was like.
He was a completely simple and good man.
He did not suffer from greatness, did not pretend to be a hero, did not like applause.
He was ordinary like us.
Very friendly and on familiar terms with everyone.
Ready to go at any time wherever the bishop sent him.
Neither the Primate nor the bishops pressured him to leave the parish in Żoliborz, to move somewhere else. (…)
His courage was on a par with Sienkiewicz’s heroes.
When he spent a holiday at the seaside with friends one year, he would often go out alone into the forest, returning home late in the evening.
His friends were afraid for him, because there were secret service agents there too, who “guarded” him at every turn.
When one day a round-up was organised at the seaside, on the beach, he simply put on a dressing gown and calmly walked away into the forest.
Sometimes he was able to lead those who followed him on a trail, disappearing from their sight in the nooks and crannies of Warsaw streets.
He often resorted to tricks.
One time he was travelling outside Warsaw.
He disguised himself, fixed himself a moustache and beard, and thus, unrecognised, he passed all the guards and safely reached his destination.
On the day before his kidnapping and death, he offered three thugs in a car who were guarding him day and night (…) black coffee to warm up, which was received with indignation.
He was full of life and verve, and at the same time composed, gentle and kind to everyone.
He was a priest with broad horizons.
He did not limit himself to pastoral work in the parish, but his thoughts encompassed all socio-political groups and tried to create some kind of national union of people leading by different paths to one goal – good and love of the Fatherland.
This is how we can explain his contacts with non-believers, with various political groups.
He was full of simplicity and always ready to serve, regardless of what people would say.
Unwavering in combating evil, and persistent in doing good.
When he showed up, people ran to him, showered him with flowers.
They accompanied him on the way to the Mostowski Palace for interrogations.
He was merciful and showed mercy.
His apartment and garage were piled with gifts for poor families, for those who had been thrown out of work.
He personally very often took gifts to families in need.
He was surprising in doing good.
On a frosty Christmas Eve during martial law, he got into his car and reached the military guards in the streets, got out of the car, calmly approached the soldiers who were ready to shoot, took out the wafer and shared it with them.
The young soldiers, cut off from the world behind the walls of their barracks for many months, mostly unaware of the political and social situation, cried with joy that someone had thought of them so simply on that holy night.
Not only the material matters of the wronged people were close to his heart, but also spiritual matters were the subject of his concern.
Many found meaning in life under the influence of his homilies.
Many put their marital and family lives in order.
He prepared adults for the sacrament of Baptism and Holy Communion.
A kind of charm of kindness flowed from him, to which people succumbed.
He showed his heart to those against whom trials were underway.
He was present many times in the courtroom to support the spirit of those who were wrongly accused. (…)
He was determined.
He said that a priest cannot avoid working for the good of the Church and the Fatherland and bury his head in the sand when so many people suffer persecution and imprisonment.
Despite his poor health, frequent headaches and other ailments, he did not cease his activity.
In Bydgoszcz on October 19, 1984, despite feeling unwell, he celebrated Holy Mass and led the Rosary with beautiful meditation.
With the Rosary in his hand, he persevered until the end.
He could repeat after Christ: “It is finished.”
From: “Father Jerzy Popiełuszko. Servant of God, patriot, martyr 1947-1984”, Biały Kruk, Kraków 2004.
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