SOSNOWIEC (POLAND)
Notes from Poland [Kraków, Poland]
October 4, 2024
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 against minors. 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.