Cardinal Stanis\u0142aw Dziwisz has once again failed to appear as a witness in a civil lawsuit brought against the Archdiocese of Krakow by a former altar boy seeking 20 million PLN in damages. <\/p>\n
The District Court in Krakow is currently hearing a civil case filed by Janusz Szymik, who claims he was sexually abused hundreds of times by Father Jan Wodniak between 1984 and 1989. The plaintiff is seeking 20 million PLN in compensation, marking one of the highest claims for institutional responsibility for sexual abuse in Poland.<\/p>\n
The case extends beyond the actions of a single priest, as the court investigates how church superiors responded to reports of abuse. Szymik previously brought a case against the Bielsko-\u017bywiec diocese in 2021, where he was awarded 400,000 PLN.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Stanis\u0142aw Dziwisz was expected to testify, but his absence was again noted. Previously, the Krakow curia cited poor health as the reason for his non-appearance. However, the court was recently informed that the Cardinal has planned a month-long trip including a visit to the Holy See, which the judge noted conflicts with claims of ill health.<\/p>\n
The judge warned that such behavior is considered a sign of disrespect toward the court. While the court stated that ordering a forced appearance by police would be an extreme measure, it remains an available legal tool if the witness continues to ignore court obligations.<\/p>\n
The court must determine when church authorities became aware of Father Jan Wodniak’s actions and whether their response was adequate. Janusz Szymik alleges that he reported the abuse to Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy twice without effect, and that Cardinal Dziwisz learned of the matter in 2012, yet the priest was not removed until 2014.<\/p>\n
The trial focuses on whether the Archdiocese of Krakow bears financial and institutional responsibility for the harm caused by the priest and the alleged failure of oversight. Father Wodniak has reportedly admitted to the abuse and faced canonical penalties, but the civil case seeks to establish broader institutional liability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cardinal Stanis\u0142aw Dziwisz has once again failed to appear as a witness in a civil lawsuit brought against the Archdiocese of Krakow by a former altar boy seeking 20 million PLN in damages. The Legal Battle Against the Archdiocese The District Court in Krakow is currently hearing a civil case filed by Janusz Szymik, who […]<\/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-7504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504","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=7504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}