A priest and a nun walk out from the Polish bishops' headquarters in Warsaw May 22, 2019. Photo: CNS Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Jan Tyrawa of Bydgoszcz, the latest bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse by clergy.
The bishops’ conference said the Vatican had “conducted proceedings on reported negligence” in line with the Pontiff’s May 2019 motu proprio, Vos estis lux mundi, and had also taken account of “other difficulties” facing Bishop Tyrawa.
Poland’s Catholic Wiez bimonthly said Bishop Tyrawa had reappointed Fr Pawel Kania to Bydgoszcz’s Divine Providence Parish after the priest had been detained by police and suspended from another diocese for propositioning boys and storing images of child abuse on his computer.
It added that Fr Kania had cared for altar boys and taught religious classes to children at his new parish in from 2006 to 2009, before being jailed in 2015 for seven years.
In February 2020, a court ordered the Bydgoszcz Diocese to pay $40,000 in damages to one of Fr Kania’s victims, an order upheld on appeal in December.