Will Sellers
AIER
For a communist country, it was strange to have an unsanctioned gathering of a million people. But, in Poland, 40 years ago the funeral of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko brought the nation to a halt to pay their last respects to a simple parish priest. Father Popiełuszko was not known as a great scholar or powerful intellect. In fact, he barely made the grades to graduate from seminary.
But he was a man of the people and he spoke to his people with simple, but powerful sermons that became a significant crack in Poland’s socialist foundations. Within five years, the Polish People’s Republic would be discarded and replaced by the Republic of Poland. One of the key events leading to this change of government was the funeral of Father Popiełuszko.
The Polish Politburo saw the threat posed by Father Popiełuszko. He would be arrested and interrogated over 30 times. Until his murder, his house would be ransacked, his car sabotaged, and he was constantly harassed. The security services thought this slight vicar would get the message. The authorities thought if they intimidated him enough, he would cease to preach and support his people who were starved physically and spiritually.
For all the interrogations, death treats and brutality, he never stopped. It wasn’t that his messages were overtly anti-government or intending to incite a riot. Rather he spoke in simple terms and with the power of this simplicity; he wove Biblical stories and admonitions to indirectly attack communism in general and Polish martial law in particular.
Forty years ago, the politics of Poland pitted the people against puppets. What started in a shipyard in Gdansk over an increase in food prices became a nationwide strike focused on the plight of workers in Poland. Exposing the dangerous working conditions of Polish laborers, gave lie to the peace, prosperity and stability in a workers’ paradise.
These strikes would begat other strikes until Poland’s government was forced out of office and martial law was declared. All of this was a PR nightmare for the Soviet Union, which in 1984 was experiencing its own tribulations and did not welcome the distractions of a satellite wobbling out of orbit. The one-two punch of Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II messages of hope and freedom on Radio Free Europe was simply too much for the regime. While the people might not have control over their circumstances, their minds were engaged and inspired by Father Popiełuszko.
The more he preached, the larger his followings and the resulting need for the totalitarians to silence his voice. Within the socialist republic, the choice was easy. Arrest him on trumped-up charges and put him in prison after a fair trial. But the regime’s henchmen overplayed their hand. They placed weapons and explosives in his car and home; however, their magnitude was not to mention the provenance of the weaponry was beyond anything a priest could obtain. Once the Vatican and others weighed in, he was released.
Rather than deter Father Jerzy, this only emboldened him. If it hadn’t been clear before, it would be obvious that he was a mere priest taking on all the machinery of the Polish communists. Undeterred, he continued, and his sermons would be recorded, dropped off at the American or British Embassy and replayed on Radio Free Europe. Instead of silencing him, the government had inadvertently provided him with a larger megaphone.
This called for more urgent measures that couldn’t fail. Perhaps the security forces had watched The Godfather and gained ideas? First, they tried tampering with his car to precipitate a fatal accident. When this didn’t work, they performed the ultimate bastion of a thug: kidnap, torture, murder and hide the body.
Things worked well for a week, but the weights tied to the body failed to keep him submerged and when he floated to the top of the water, the brutality of the Polish People’s Republic was exposed. Father Popiełuszko was one of 10 priests murdered by the communists, but he would be the last.
No one accepted the attempt at plausible deniability. Everyone knew that nothing happened in Poland by private initiative, much less chance. Even when three security force members were placed on trial, it was clear they were acting on orders from above. Once convicted they were confined in a jail of sorts but would be later released. Everyone knew the government was responsible, but questions remained about the chain of command.
The funeral was a huge event. Even the official estimate had to concede that over 250,000 mourners attended; unofficial estimates placed the number at four times that number. To make sure the funeral didn’t become a riot, security forces were everywhere. But rather than act belligerently to the antagonizing officers the mourners chanted versions of “We Forgive You.” This expression of passive resistance stunned the government which so wanted a pretext to justify further crack downs on public gatherings. But Father Popiełuszko’s message won out. Even in death he had again defied the government.
For the next several years as conditions worsened in Poland and throughout the Soviet Union, various popular uprisings and strikes would challenge the authority of the government. As the tension within each uprising required the government’s acquiescence on several issues, the communist regime collapsed in Poland and elsewhere. Through the lens of the life of Jerzy Popiełuszko, the economic, moral and political bankruptcy of communism was exposed for the world to see.
In one of Father Popiełuszko last sermons he said: “Violence is not victorious, though it may triumph for a while. We must unite in reconciliation in the spirit of love, but also in the spirit of justice. Love is greater than justice and at the same time finds reassurance in justice.”
Sometimes the words of a simple priest are more powerful than all the might and concentrated force of a socialist regime. No wonder millions of people visit his grave in Warsaw each year.
This article was originally published by the American Institute for Economic Research.
