Jerzy Popiełuszko

Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko

Photograph.
Priest; Martyr
Born (1947-09-14)14 September 1947
Okopy, near Suchowola, Poland
Died 19 October 1984(1984-10-19) (aged 37)
Włocławek, Poland
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified 6 June 2010, Warsaw, Poland by Archbishop Angelo Amato
Feast 19 October
Attributes Crucifix
Patronage Solidarity
Funeral
Funeral

Jerzy Popiełuszko (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjɛʐɨ popʲɛˈwuʂkɔ]; 14 September 1947[1] – 19 October 1984) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest who became associated with the opposition Solidarity trade union in communist Poland. He was murdered in 1984 by three agents of Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), who were shortly thereafter tried and convicted of the murder.

He has been recognized as a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, and was beatified on 6 June 2010 by Archbishop Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.[2] A miracle attributed to his intercession and required for his canonization is now under investigation.

Biography

Early life and priesthood

Born 14 September 1947 in Okopy near Suchowola. After finishing school, he attended the priests' seminary at Warsaw. He served his army duties in a special force, aimed to keep young men from becoming priests. This treatment had an adverse effect on Popiełuszko, as, after finishing his army service, he continued his studies. As a vicar he served in parishes in Warsaw, which consisted of the common people as well as students.[3] 1981 Jerzy Popiełuszko was sent to the workers, taking part in strikers in the Warsaw Steelworks. Thereafter he was associated with workers and trade unionists from the Solidarity movement who opposed the Communist regime in Poland.

He was a staunch anti-communist, and in his sermons, interwove spiritual exhortations with political messages, criticizing the Communist system and motivating people to protest. During the period of martial law the Catholic Church was the only force that could voice protest comparatively openly, with the regular celebration of Mass presenting opportunities for public gatherings in churches.

Popiełuszko's sermons were routinely broadcast by Radio Free Europe, and thus became famous throughout Poland for their uncompromising stance against the regime. The Służba Bezpieczeństwa tried to silence or intimidate him. When those techniques did not work, they fabricated evidence against him; he was arrested in 1983, but soon released on intervention of the clergy and pardoned by an amnesty.

Assassination

A car accident was set up to kill Jerzy Popiełuszko on 13 October 1984 but he evaded it. The alternative plan was to kidnap him; it was carried out on 19 October 1984. The priest was beaten to death by three Security Police officers: Captain Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala and Waldemar Chmielewski. They pretended to have problems with their car and flagged down Jerzy Popiełuszko's car for help. Jerzy Popiełuszko was beaten up, tied up and put in the trunk of the car.[3] The officers bound a stone to his feet and dropped him into the Vistula Water Reservoir near Włocławek from where his body was recovered on 30 October 1984.[4]

News of the political murder caused an uproar throughout Poland, and the murderers and one of their superiors, Colonel Adam Pietruszka, were convicted of the crime. More than 250,000 people, including Lech Wałęsa, attended his funeral on 3 November 1984. Despite the murder and its repercussions, the Communist regime remained in power until 1989. Popiełuszko's murderers – Captain Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala, Waldemar Chmielewski and Colonel Adam Pietruszka, responsible for giving the order to kill – were jailed but released later as part of an amnesty.[4]

Popiełuszko was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest decoration, in 2009.[5]

Legacy

Media

Noted Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik composed his Bassoon Concerto (1985) in memory of Popiełuszko. The work is inspired by Popiełuszko's work and death.[6]

Christopher Lambert played a character inspired by Popiełuszko in the film To Kill a Priest.

A track entitled "Homily to Popiełuszko" is featured on the B-side to the album Flajelata (1986) by Muslimgauze. The entire B-side of that album is dedicated to all dissidents from the Soviet Union.

Ronald Harwood's documentary drama The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest was premiered at the Almeida Theatre in 1985 October — an early example of a theatre transcript of a trial, in this case the trial of Popiełuszko's murderers.

A movie, Popiełuszko, documenting the life and death of Popiełuszko was released in Poland in February 2009. Another film, Jerzy Popieluszko: Messenger of the Truth, was produced by Paul G. Hensler in 2013.

In the television show The Americans, the episode Duty and Honor in season one featured a fictional Polish resistance leader loosely based on Popiełuszko.

In their work Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman used Popiełuszko's murder and subsequent media coverage in the United States as a case study of the propaganda model, where it is compared and contrasted with the coverage of murders of Óscar Romero and other Latin American clergy by US-backed forces. Chomsky and Herman argued that being murdered by an enemy state, Popiełuszko would be seen as an "worthy victim" and thus receive extensive press coverage in the American press, while Romero and other Latin American clergy, being murdered by US client states, would be deemed as "unworthy victims", and thus would not receive as much press coverage.[7]

Monuments

San Bartolomeo all'Isola in Rome, where Popiełuszko is commemorated in the memorial to 20th- and 21st- century martyrs.

A monument to Fr. Popiełuszko in the form of a symbolic gravestone in the shape of a cross was erected by Chicago's Polish community in the garden of memory next to St. Hyacinth Basilica.

A monument to Fr. Popiełuszko in the form of a bust bearing his likeness with a chain wrapped about his neck was erected on the property of Saint Hedwig Catholic Church in Trenton, New Jersey.

A pocket park across from McCarren Park on the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border in Brooklyn, New York, a historically Polish neighborhood, is named for Fr. Popiełuszko and features a stone bust bearing his likeness.

Popieluszko Court in Hartford, Connecticut, was named in his memory. The SS. Cyril & Methodius Church is located on this street, serving as an important cornerstone for the area's Roman Catholic Polish-American community. The street intersects with Charter Oak Boulevard, with the main entrance to the parking lot of the Polish National Home of Hartford across the street at the end of Popieluszko Court.

The rock that was used to kill Popiełuszko was placed in the San Bartolomeo all'Isola in Rome as a relic of a 20th-century martyr part of the memorial to 20th- and 21st- century martyrs.[8]

Beatification and canonization

The Roman Catholic Church started the process of his beatification with the declaration of "nihil obstat" (nothing against) on 15 March 1996 and held a diocesan process from 8 February 1997 to 8 February 2001. This conferred upon him the title of Servant of God. In 2008 the Positio was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and on 19 December 2009 it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI had approved the decree for the beatification of Father Popiełuszko.[9]

He was beatified by Archbishop Angelo Amato on 6 June 2010 in Warsaw's Piłsudski Square. His mother, Marianna Popiełuszko was present at the event.[10] More than 100,000 people attended the open-air mass in the Polish capital Warsaw to beatify Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Poland Post issued a set of stamps on that same day to mark the beatification.[11]

In October 2013, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz - the Archbishop of Warsaw, the diocese where Popiełuszko was killed - announced that a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Polish priest has been identified and confirmed in France. Thus Cardinal Nycz predicts that Popiełuszko will likely be canonized soon.[12] A miracle was investigated in a diocesan process in France from 20 September 2014 until 14 September 2015.

See also

References

Further reading

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