The Polish priest Jerzy Popieluszko was one of the many Roman Catholic clerics killed by the communists in Eastern Europe. Fr Popieluszko was beatified in Warsaw on June 6, 2010.
Jerzy Popieluszko’s Early Life
Jerzy Popieluszko (September 14, 1947 – October 19, 1984) was born to a poor farming family in the small village of Okopy, Northeastern Poland, very close to the Soviet border. Partly due to his delicate health, Jerzy grew up as an introverted and modest boy, a bit of a loner, called by his mates “the philosopher”. He served as an altar boy from his First Holy Communion until his high school graduation. After high school, Jerzy Popieluszko went to a seminary in Warsaw, not far from the monastery of St Maximilian Kolbe. Saint Maximilian, a Polish Franciscan friar who had been killed in Auschwitz, was one of Jerzy Popieluszko’s admired heroes and a model of virtue.
In 1966, after his first year at the seminary, Popieluszko joined the army. At that time, all young men in the East-European communist countries were obliged to serve in the army. During the military service, Jerzy Popieluszko was ordered to reject his religious faith and throw away his prayer-book and rosary. He refused to obey orders and was severely punished and humiliated. After a month in detention barracks, Popieluszko wrote to his father: “I have turned out to be very tough. I can’t be broken by threats or torture”, and to a seminary teacher: “One doesn’t suffer when one suffers for Christ.” Although the two-year military service steadily strengthened his faith, the permanent harassment and torture worsened his health.
Fr Popieluszko’s Early Pastoral Work
After his ordination in 1972, Father Jerzy Popieluszko began his pastoral work as a chaplain to medical students and nurses in the capital city. In June 1980, he was sent to the parish of St Stanislaw Kostka where he served as a chaplain to the nearby huge Warsaw Steelworks. Meanwhile, the workers in the largest factories throughout the country started peaceful but vigorous protests against the communist regime.
The anticommunist movement was inspired by the Polish born Pope John Paul II and his first journey to his fatherland in 1979. As a result, Solidarity, the first non-Communist party-controlled labor union behind the Iron Curtain, was founded in September 1980. Despite all the efforts of the communist regime to destroy the union, Solidarity was growing stronger.
Martial Law in Poland and the Masses for the Homeland
Finally, Gen. Vojciech Jaruzelski, the Prime Minister of Poland and leader of the Military Council for National Salvation, declared Martial Law in order to “defend socialism”. During the martial law period, which lasted for 19 months (December 13, 1981 – July 22, 1983), Gen. Jaruzelski imposed tight restrictions on human rights and civil liberties. The Solidarity labor union was declared illegal and its activists, including its celebrated leader Lech Walesa, were put behind bars.
Father Jerzy Popieluszko stood on the side of the workers from the very beginning of their protests and strikes. He could not be silenced and two months after martial law was imposed, he celebrated the first of his “Masses for the Homeland”. He preached the value of civil rights and personal liberties and defended the freedom of human conscience. Fr Popieluszko’s homilies had been broadcast by Radio Free Europe and copied by many priests throughout Poland.
The Martyrdom of Fr Popieluszko, the Pastor of Nine Million Workers
“Father Popieluszko was not a forceful speaker or political activist, but someone of deep conviction and integrity. His sanctity lay in an elementary righteousness that gave people hope even in the worst situations”, Archbishop Henryk Muszynski said in an interview with Catholic News Service. People loved Fr Jerzy Popieluszko and used to say that he was the pastor for nine million workers. He did “anything and everything to help them”: he provided them not only with the basic necessities of life, such as food, clothes and medicines, but also with legal support and baby-sitting services during the trials against the Solidarity activists. And he always reminded them “to overcome evil with good”.
Despite his peaceful message and humanitarian activity, Fr Popieluszko was considered a threat to the communist regime. So as the authorities could not “defeat” him, they decided to “destroy” him. On October 19, 1984, three secret police agents kidnapped, tortured and murdered Fr Jerzy Popieluszko. Then, they shoved his body into a sack and threw it into the Vistula River. The body was found eleven days later. The whole country was shocked by the murder of Fr Jerzy Popieluszko and the government was forced to imprison the murderers, but soon afterwards they were released as part of an amnesty.
Sources:
Faces of Holiness II: Modern Saints in Photos and Words by Ann Ball, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2001
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