WARSAWA: In the latest report released Monday about sexual abuse of minors, the Polish Catholic Church included 292 pastors who were allegedly harassed more than 300 boys and girls from 1958 to 2020.
Cases were reported to the Church authorities since mid-2018 At the end of 2020.
The report came from the victims, their families, other pastors, media and other sources.
At the online conference in Warsaw, the Head of the Polish Catholic Church, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, apologized to the victims and asked for their forgiveness, echo the apology he had made before.
According to Church statistics collected from all dioceses, 368 reports of abuse of people under the age of 18 are made for Church authorities between July 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020.
They cover the period from 1958 to 2020.
From them, 144 cases have been confirmed or considered credible at the initial stage of investigation by the Vatican church from the doctrine of faith.
The other 186 was still being investigated and 38 was rejected not credible.
“What is clear to see is that we have a wave of reports” in high amounts, since the time the previous report was published in March 2019, said Monsignor Adam Zak, officials in charge of track and prevent harassment.
The first report of the church, for 1990-2018, included a case of 382 pastors who allegedly abused 625 minors.
The current report reflects new charges that have been made since then.
Forty-two of the names of the perpetrators suspected of being the same as the previous report, said Church officials.
The new report came when the Vatican investigated the signal of harassment and lack of reaction by church leaders in Poland, a country that is the dominant Catholic where pastors enjoy special prices.
The Vatican recently punished several Poland’s Archbishop and Bishop because of negligence and forbid him from the Church and lay ceremony.
The holy view was also investigating the negligence report by retirees by Archbishop Krakow, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who previously served as a personal secretary to the deceased Pope, St.
John Paul II.
In the latest developments, Pope Francis on Monday received the resignation of Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski from the legnica diocese in Southwest Poland.
It followed the Vatican investigation into the “negligence” of the bishop in the case of a priest who harassed underage in the Diocese of Siedlce when Kiernikowski was his head from 2002-2014, a local church authority said.
The Polish Catholic Church has long enjoyed a special respect in this country because of his historic role in preserving the Polish national identity during the period of foreign occupation and government, and during the decade of communist rules which ended in 1989.
However, the church recently saw several young Polish Turning from it because of anger over the view that the church has done too little to fight ulama harassment, and because of church support for the right wing government and its policy, including tightening abortion abortion recently.
The Polish Church report includes more than 300 children abuse
