Sosnowiec. Pedophilia scandal in the curia. The searches have been completed

Sources close to the prosecutor's office indicate that the searches lasted until Saturday. The Curia declared full cooperation with the relevant authorities, also providing data and media.

Read also: Murder, suicide, homosexual orgy. After a series of scandals, investigators searched the Sosnowiec diocese

Diocese spokesman, Fr. In Friday's statement, Przemysław Lech recalled that on September 21, the first of the commissions appointed by the Bishop of Sosnowiec, Artur Important, began work, which are to explain the irregularities “that may have occurred in the diocese in previous years.”

“The commission, which is to investigate, among other things, issues of abuse against minors, was initiated in June and will start regular work in October. The Curia is of the opinion that it is necessary not only to clarify all difficult issues, but also to help the injured,” we read in statement.

A few hours earlier, the Diocesan Curia in Sosnowiec confirmed press information that after the recent arrests of clergy from this diocese, it sent information to priests containing instructions on how they should behave in similar situations. – The intention of the message was to remind clergy of the applicable regulations and their rights in such situations – said Father Lech.

On Tuesday, at the request of the District Prosecutor's Office in Sosnowiec, three men were detained. Two of them are active clergy from the Sosnowiec diocese. The third one is a former priest, also from this diocese, but the charges against him concern the period when he was still a priest. The two priests heard together 11 charges of sexual offenses against children. One of them was arrested. The former priest is suspected of fraud.

The latest arrests took place during an investigation initiated in March last year on the basis of information obtained during another investigation – the murder of a 26-year-old deacon at a Catholic house at Kościelna Street in Sosnowiec.

A 40-year-old priest allegedly took his life by shooting him six times with a revolver and stabbing him many times. Then he committed suicide. Both clergy served in the cathedral basilica of St. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sosnowiec. The proceedings in this case were discontinued due to the death of the perpetrator.

It was one of several cases that shocked the Sosnowiec diocese in the last several months. In September 2023, in the apartment of Fr. Tomasz Z. in the parish in Dąbrowa Górnicza, the emergency services and police intervened. The prosecutor's office charged Fr. Tomasz Z. was charged with four charges: three of them concerned drug offenses and one was of a moral nature. In April, the man was sentenced to one and a half years in prison.

As a consequence of these events, in October 2023 Pope Francis accepted the bishop's resignation. Grzegorz Kaszak from serving as bishop of Sosnowiec, and he appointed the metropolitan of Katowice, archbishop, as the administrator of the diocese. Adrian Galbas.

Another case in the Sosnowiec diocese occurred in March this year and concerned the death of a young man in the apartment of a priest who was a resident of the parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sosnowiec. The priest, who was a judge of the bishop's court in the diocese, was charged with possessing a psychotropic substance. The Sosnowiec-Północ District Prosecutor's Office is investigating the case of unintentional manslaughter.

On April 23, 2024, Pope Francis appointed Bishop as the new Ordinary of Sosnowiec. Arthur the Important. An audit is underway in the diocese – the work is carried out by a commission for discernment and development, whose task is to look at how institutions and structures operate in the pastoral, administrative, legal and financial dimensions. The second commission, which will deal with explaining scandals involving clergy, is – as Bishop Ważny informed – “at the stage of authorization.”