Testifying before the Regional Court in Krak\u00f3w, Cardinal Stanis\u0142aw Dziwisz stated he lacked knowledge of a priest’s sexual abuse during the 1980s while he was serving in the Vatican. <\/p>\n
The Regional Court in Krak\u00f3w has been hearing a lawsuit since mid-June regarding a 20 million PLN compensation claim filed by Janusz Szymik against the Archdiocese of Krak\u00f3w and the parish in Mi\u0119dzybrodzie Bialskie. Szymik was sexually abused as a child between 1984 and 1989 by the then-parish priest, Rev. Jan W.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Stanis\u0142aw Dziwisz appeared as a witness in the trial, as plaintiff attorneys argued he may have been aware of Rev. Jan W.’s actions after receiving signals and requests for intervention from Rev. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski.<\/p>\n
During his nearly hour-long testimony, the retired Metropolitan of Krak\u00f3w stated that while he recognized Rev. Jan W. as he knew all priests in the archdiocese, he had no personal or social contact with him.<\/p>\n
Dziwisz testified that he had no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Rev. Jan W.’s appointment or dismissal as secretary to the then-Metropolitan of Krak\u00f3w, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, because he was stationed in Rome at the time. He noted that for 27 years in the Vatican he served as the pope’s secretary and did not involve himself in diocese affairs due to his other duties.<\/p>\n
Plaintiff attorneys presented archival photos of priests on a beach holiday, asking Dziwisz to comment on them. Dziwisz responded that he was not on the beach with Rev. W. and called it a surprising question after 50 years, noting that everyone was too young then to easily recognize individuals now.<\/p>\n
The hierarch testified that he only learned about Janusz Szymik’s abuse case from the press recently, and first heard about the unworthy behavior of Rev. Jan W. in 2022. He recalled speaking by phone with someone identifying as Janusz Szymik regarding a meeting, but declined once the caller requested to bring a lawyer.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for the Archdiocese of Krak\u00f3w asked if the curia knew Rev. W. was a secret collaborator with the Security Service (SB). Dziwisz replied he had no such knowledge because it was classified, learning of it only about a week prior. The defense requested that the State Treasury be joined to the case, alleging the communist security apparatus used the priest’s inclinations to blackmail him into informing rather than prosecuting him.<\/p>\n
In July, the hierarch had requested not to be summoned due to age and health, citing medical recommendations and stress, while also noting his long absence in Rome from 1978 to 2004. After previous delays due to illness and a planned Vatican trip, he ultimately gave his testimony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Testifying before the Regional Court in Krak\u00f3w, Cardinal Stanis\u0142aw Dziwisz stated he lacked knowledge of a priest’s sexual abuse during the 1980s while he was serving in the Vatican. Lawsuit Against the Archdiocese The Regional Court in Krak\u00f3w has been hearing a lawsuit since mid-June regarding a 20 million PLN compensation claim filed by Janusz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}