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Jerzy Popiełuszko, 14, September 1947 - 19, October 1984 was a Catholic priest who became a chaplain for the Solidarity labor movement in Communist Poland.
“The duty of a priest is to preach the truth, suffer for the truth, and if necessary, even die for the truth.” – Blessed Father Jerzy Popiełuszko
After finishing school, he entered the seminary in Warsaw. His seminary studies were interrupted with service in an army special unit designed to prevent young men from becoming priests. The two years spent in that unit did not deter him from returning to his seminary studies. He suffered from physical injuries in that unit for his resistance to continue his path to ordination as a priest.
In 1981 he joined strikers at the Warsaw Steel Works which led to the Solidarity labor movement to rid Poland of its Communist government.
During the martial law phase against Solidarity, Father Jerzy heard confessions, said Mass, and organized food drives for families of those workers who had been sent to internment camps. He attended trials of workers and eventually was arrested and given a 10-year sentence. The sentence was set aside due to intervention from the church.
His sermons appeared on Radio Free Europe, and they were heard across Poland and Eastern Europe. The decision was made by the Communist government in Poland to kill Father Jerzy. A staged car accident was the first attempt to kill this troublesome priest. The second attempt was successful.
Invited by the Pastoral Care of the Working People (Polish: Duszpasterstwa Ludzi Pracy), Popiełuszko arrived in Bydgoszcz on 19 October 1984. At 18:00, he celebrated Holy Mass at the Church of the Holy Polish Brothers Martyrs. A car accident had been set up to kill 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 Popiełuszko's car for help. Popiełuszko was severely beaten, tied up and put in the trunk of the car. 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.
An estimated 600,000 to 1 million Polish citizens came to Warsaw to attend his funeral Mass on 3 November 1984.
On a personal note, when my dad was an Assistant Naval Attache in New Delhi he was approached by a Polish diplomat asking for asylum for himself and his family. He made arrangements to get them into the US Embassy and then to the US. His family was ordered back to Poland and the diplomat canceled the plan. My dad believed that someone leaked the plan to Polish officials and possibly Russian intelligence.
Years later when President Reagan asked Americans to place a candle in a window for Poland during the Solidarity movement my mom placed a candle in the window for Poland.
Good and faithful servant, Father Jerzy rest in peace.
Discussion (5)
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A very special story, Doug. I especially appreciated your father's efforts. Thanks.
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Interesting to see Trump joining you in praise of Fr. Jerzy.
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Is there a good place in Bydgoszcz or Warsaw to pay my respects if I get to visit those places again? I never did learn to pronounce Bydgoszcz without having my pronunciation corrected, but I haven't given up yet.
Włocławek is the nearest town to my grandmother's village. The Lutheran church cemetery is under water now, as a dam at Włocławek was built in the 60s and most of her village is now under water. I don't think the burials were reinterred, so a great grandmother and some great-great grandparents are probably buried below the water there now.
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Thanks. I've marked it in my GIS database.
When we visited the area along the Vistula where Popiełuszko’s body was dumped in the river, we had trouble finding places where we could get close to the river to get a view. In my office I have my grandmother's sewing basket, which was probably made with willow branches her father harvested on islands in the river. Those islands are underwater now, but I wanted to get the best view I could of the river my grandmother remembered. We found a small roadside restaurant/inn along the waterfront, and after eating we sat along the river for a while and settled for getting that view. It was probably upstream a mile or so from the German village cemetery, and probably even further from where Popiełuszko’s body was dumped. At various places there are small boats one can rent nowadays, so I suppose there are places where the commie thugs could easily have gotten a boat and done their work unseen. There's no great significance to my family connection, but it will help me remember.
Last December I learned that there was another brother in the family on my father's father's side (from the same village). He stayed in Poland when his older sister (my g-grandmother) and a younger brother (at whose place I stayed during my brief career as a migrant worker in the sugar beet fields) came to America. When the Nazis came they confiscated his farm, presumably in the same area we're talking about. He played the German card: "Why do you want my farm? I'm German!" It didn't work, and he ended up in a Nazi concentration camp where he died. It's a minor incident compared to the slaughter of Jews a little further upstream in Płock, which is where we stayed. Płock is a more touristy city with some old late-medieval ruins, while Włocławek, where the dam was built, is a grimier industrial town where we figured it would be harder for us to communicate. Before leaving Płock we took a walk in a new direction, and a couple blocks from our hotel saw a plaque on a wall telling how Pope John Paul had visited political prisoners there. My best guess is that the hotel is now housing Ukrainian refugees, because it hasn't been taking reservations for at least a couple of years now.