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	Catholic Priest Quits Church to Care for His Love Child By Laurence Ford The Scotsman March 31, 2011 http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Catholic-priest-quits-church-to.6743250.jp A YOUNG Roman Catholic priest has quit the church to look after his love child. Father Piotr Koczorowski, the former Polish chaplain based at St Mary's RC Church in Inverness, disappeared following a Christmas party. Rumours were rife among members of the congregation that a woman was involved and that they had a baby. The Scottish Catholic Church has confirmed the news. In a brief statement, a spokesman for the Aberdeen diocese said: "After meeting with Bishop Peter Moran, Fr Koczorowski plans to leave the priesthood in order to focus on his parental responsibilities." One source suggested 35-year-old Fr Piotr had given up his charge and gone to live in Glasgow with his partner and their baby. Colleagues at St Mary's, in Huntly Street on the banks of the River Ness, would not discuss his departure. The news will surprise many of the devoted Polish Roman Catholic residents in the Highland capital, of whom there are an estimated 6,000. Lukasz Poplawski, a fellow Pole who answered the telephone in St Mary's office, said he understood Fr Piotr was still in Scotland, but he would not disclose where. The head priest at St Mary's is Fr James Bell, but he was unavailable for comment, as he is currently in hospital, and the replacement Polish priest, Fr Joachim Zok, said he did not know Fr Piotr. He would only say: "I have never met him. I am a new person here. I did not ask anything. I am not much involved." However, Zosia Wierbowicz-Fraser, of the Inverness Polish Association, said she thought there might have been background issues behind Fr Piotr's departure. She said: "I was suspicious that maybe there was something like that in the air. I did not know. I really did not know. This was kept very quiet. "This man used to teach at our school and suddenly he was not there," she went on. "He started off at our Christmas meal on December 18. After that he left, and I have not seen him since. "This is going to cause a lot of embarrassment to the Polish community." Mrs Wierbowicz-Fraser added: "I am sorry it has happened. He was very much involved with our school. He was a good priest when he was here. It made Polish things going on in the church much easier." Traditionally, the Roman Catholic priesthood has been a bastion of bachelorism and celibacy, and fathering a child very much a taboo. Ironically, however, a former priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church's St Michael and All Angels Church in Abban Street, Inverness, Canon Len Black, a married man who has two grandchildren, has converted to Catholicism, and will be ordained as a Deacon at St Ninian's RC Church, Inverness, on 23 April. He hopes eventually to become a Catholic priest. Last September, Fr Koczorowski was at the centre of a drama at St Mary's when he went to investigate an alarm going off in the church sanctuary. He was attacked by two drunken intruders, who jumped on him and punched him to the ground, before making off.
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