Polish Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno speaks during a press conference in Warsaw on May 22, 2019 after the bishops met to discuss measures that the Catholic Church will begin to no longer fail against clerical sexual abuse. Photo credit: CNS. The Polish bishops’ administrative council met in emergency session on May 22 and later admitted the Church failed to act against clerical sexual abuse.
The meeting came amid outrage over a two-hour documentary, ‘Just Don’t Tell Anyone’, that included drastic accounts of cover-up of clerical sex abuse in Poland. The film had more than 19 million views within six days of its May 11 YouTube posting.
“The whole Church community in Poland has been shaken by the latest painful information – these crimes have caused deep suffering for harmed people,” the bishops said in a pastoral letter read in parishes nationwide on May 26.
“There are no words to express our shame at the sexual scandals clergy have participated in. They are a source of great evil and demand total condemnation, as well as severe consequences for the criminals and for those who concealed such acts.”
The bishops said they had been “deeply affected” by “shocking testimonies” in the film, as well as by its portrayal of a “lack of sympathy, sinful neglect and myopia” shown toward abuse victims.
It added that Catholic clergy and laity now had to act together in support of victims and to “rebuild trust in priests and bishops” in Poland.
The two-hour film, made with internet fundraising by investigative journalist Tomasz Sekielski, was the first that graphically detailed the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Polish church and follows a cinema drama on Church corruption, ‘Kler’ (Clergy), which broke box-office records last fall.