The Vatican announced this Tuesday the dismissal of a Polish bishop responsible for a diocese in southern Poland, implicated in a scandal related to a sexual orgy organized by a priest.
The statement released by the Vatican simply says that “the Holy Father has accepted the resignation of the pastoral government of the diocese of Sosnowiec [sul da Polónia] presented by His Excellency Mr. Grzegorz Kaszak”, without giving any particular explanation for this decision.
However, the Polish media recalls the latest scandal that occurred in September in Dabrowa Gornicza, in the diocese of Sosnowiec, where one of the priests organized an orgy in his parish inviting a prostitute.
The case came to light because the guest lost consciousness during the night and it was necessary to call medical help, supposedly after a overdose of erectile dysfunction pills.
The diocese, which identified the priest involved in the alleged orgy as Father Tomasz Z., largely corroborated media reports and said an external investigative committee concluded that he had committed “a very serious violation of the morals”, as well as his obligations as a priest. .
Kaszak relieved the priest of all his duties on September 21 and began an internal canonical trial, the result of which could lead to dismissal or laicization, according to a statement from place diocesan.
The priest was not charged by Polish prosecutors, despite suspicion that he prevented paramedics from helping the prostitute.
Polish media cited a statement he issued shortly after the scandal began, denying that he had prevented paramedics from entering his apartment and questioning the definition of an orgy.
“I perceive this as an obvious attack on the Church, including the clergy and faithful, in order to humiliate its position, tasks and mission,” the priest said in an emailed statement. email according to the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
The Sosnowiec scandals
The media in Poland, the most Catholic country in Europe, occasionally cites two previous scandals that allegedly occurred in the same diocese of Sosnowiec.
The first concerns the director of a local seminary who was allegedly arrested while having sex in a club. homosexualsand another about a 46-year-old priest who allegedly killed a deacon 20 years his junior before throwing himself under a train.
The prosecution claimed that the two had had a conflictive relationship for some time and that the priest had sent threatening messages to the deacon, the Polish news agency PAP reported.
In a statement Tuesday, Kaszak said he asked the pope to allow him to resign in a Sept. 29 letter, thanking the priests and nuns of his diocese and asking “everyone to forgive my human limitations.”
Kaszak, 75, was appointed bishop of Sosnowiec in 2009 by then-Pope Benedict XVI, after briefly working in the Vatican’s Family Office.
The Polish Catholic Church has been rocked for several years by allegations of sexual abuse of minors involving clergy, scandals that led to the forced resignation of several bishops and damaged the reputation of the institution in the home country of former Pope John. Paul II.
The Vatican representation in Poland said a temporary administrator, Archbishop Adrian Galbas of Katowice, will head the Sosnowiec diocese until a new bishop is named.
Source: TSF
