Reverend Marek Bozek

Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko

On October 19, 1984, a frail, young priest was savagely beaten and drowned by government security agents in the woods of rural Poland. The brutal death of this holy priest, carried out in the dark of night, captured the attention of the world, and his martyrdom is increasingly seen as a sacrifice leading not only to the resurrection of his own country as a free and independent nation of Christian people, but a bloody sacrifice redeeming all enslaved European peoples from the Baltic to the Urals.

Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko was born on September 14, 1947, in the village of Okopy in Eastern Poland. His parents were farmers, and Popieluszko, like most young Poles, grew up with a profound love for the Church and a mystical love for a country whose history, culture, music and poetry are one with the Church. After high school, he decided to study for the priesthood, entering the seminary in Warsaw. Jerzy’s training was interrupted by two years of military service, during which he was beaten on at least one occasion for living his Christian faith.

After ordination, the young priest held several appointments before his final appointment to the parish of St. Stanislaw Kostka in a working-class neighborhood of the Polish capital. Due to poor health, he resided at St. Stanislas Church and worked part-time in the parish, which enabled him to work as well with medical personnel. Thousands flocked to hear his Sunday sermons. Fr. Jerzy was tireless in speaking out against abortion.

August 1980 saw the beginning of the Solidarity trade union in Poland. Striking shipyard workers from the Warsaw steel plant approached Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski to ask for a priest to say Mass for them. The Cardinal found Fr. Jerzy at St. Stanislaw Kostka Church. Solidarity represented for Fr. Jerzy a vision that he had first learned from St Maximilian Kolbe: that of spiritual freedom amidst physical enslavement. Fr. Jerzy promoted this vision of the truth about the vocation of every man and woman among the workers who gathered around him.

On December 13, 1981, the communist authorities imposed martial law on Poland, arresting many Solidarity activists and commencing a programme of harassment and retaliation against others. Fr. Popieluszko became an important focus in a welfare programme to support families affected by martial law, winning new friends amongst foreign visitors bringing in relief supplies. He regularly attended the trials of Solidarity activists, sitting prominently in court with their families so that the prisoners could see that they were not forgotten. It was in the courtroom that he had the idea for a monthly Mass for the Fatherland, to be celebrated for all the imprisoned and their families. Fr. Popieluszko insisted that change should be brought about peacefully; the sign of peace was one of the most poignant moments of each monthly Mass for the Country.

On October 19, 1984, Fr. Popieluszko was kidnapped by security agents on his way back to Warsaw after a visit to a parish in the neighboring town of Bydgoszcz. Fr. Jerzy’s driver was told to get out of his car and get into the police car where he was cuffed and gagged. Fr. Jerzy was then savagely beaten until he lost consciousness, and his body was tied up in such a way that he would strangle himself by moving. His weighted body was then thrown into a reservoir. The driver, who managed to escape, told what had happened to the press. On October 30, Popieluszko’s bound and gagged body was found in the freezing waters of a reservoir near Wloclawek.

The priest’s funeral was a massive public demonstration drawing together more than half a million people in the working class section of Warsaw. Official delegations of Solidarity appeared from throughout the whole country for the first time since the imposition of martial law. Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko was buried in the front yard of his parish church of Saint Stanislas Kostka. Since then this church has become a shrine of the Solidarity Movement. Fr. Jerzy’s brutal murder was widely believed to have hastened the collapse of communist rule in Poland.
t was discovered that he was carrying a Rosary, he was ordered to s
 

Quotes:

* The position of the Church will always be the same as the position of the people…and when the people are persecuted then the Church shares in their suffering.

* In my sermons I talk about what people are thinking and what they are talking about… because often they have not either the courage or the opportunity of being able to express themselves out loud.

* Solidarity is a constant concern for our country, upholding its internal freedom even in conditions of enslavement. It means that we must overcome fear, upholding our dignity as children of God and courageously bearing witness to what we believe, what we hold in our hearts.

His Prayer

Mother of those who place their hope in Solidarity, pray for us.
Mother of those who are deceived, pray for us.
Mother of those who are betrayed, pray for us.
Mother of those who are arrested in the night, pray for us.
Mother of those who are imprisoned, pray for us.
Mother of those who suffer from the cold, pray for us.
Mother of those who have been frightened, pray for us.
Mother of those who were subjected to interrogations, pray for us.
Mother of those innocents who have been condemned, pray for us.
Mother of those who speak the truth, pray for us.
Mother of those who cannot be corrupted, pray for us.
Mother of those who resist, pray for us.
Mother of orphans, pray for us.
Mother of those who have been molested because they wore your image, pray for us.
Mother of those who are forced to sign declarations contrary to their conscience, pray for us.
Mother of mothers who weep, pray for us.
Mother of fathers who have been so deeply saddened, pray for us.
Mother of suffering Poland, pray for us.
Mother of always faithful Poland, pray for us.

We beg you, O mother in whom resides the hope of millions of people, grant us to live in liberty and in truth, in fidelity to you and to your Son. Amen.