An independent panel aimed at documenting cases of paedophilia in Poland's Catholic Church will be set up early next year to help victims speak up and claim damages, opposition parliamentarians said on Monday.
The Roman Catholic Church world-wide is reeling from crises involving sexual abuse of minors, deeply damaging confidence in the Church in Chile, the United States, Australia and Ireland among other countries.
In stark contrast, in Poland, a deeply Catholic country, debate has only just begun while activists close to the nascent anti-paedophilia project, called "Nie lękajcie sie" (Don't Be Afraid), say that around 600 priests in Poland may have inclinations towards paedophilia.
"Our main demand is forming a parliamentary commission that will investigate the problems of paedophilia in the church," said Marek Lisiński, the head of the "Nie lękajcie się" foundation.
Around 100 people claiming to have been sexually molested by Polish priests phoned to tell their stories in the first 24 hours after organisers of the panel posted an interactive paedophilia map on the Internet on Sunday.
"The map of paedophilia was viewed by 500,000 people since yesterday. Public discussion has started and we want to set up a panel early next year to tackle the issue," Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, an opposition MP, told Reuters TV.
The map documents 280 cases of paedophilia committed by 60 priests convicted by Polish courts, but according to activists the real numbers are much higher since victims are often afraid to speak up for psychological and social reasons.
"One-hundred people have called us since yesterday to tell us about their cases, and we need to research and verify all these cases," Scheuring-Wielgus said.
According to the former Modern Party MP, "many cases were hidden or classified. There is huge work ahead of us, ahead of prosecutors, ahead of lawyers to unravel it. What is more, nobody of us has access to the (church) files in the dioceses".
Scheuring-Wielgus added that, "the Catholic Church in Poland behaves totally different than churches in Ireland, Germany, Pennsylvania or Australia. The Polish church believes it is not responsible for the damages it has caused. But it is responsible, and bishops and priests in other countries understand that and our bishops should understand it too".
Several left-wing and liberal MPs, along with rights activists, declared their support in creating or running the investigative panel. The ruling nationalist (PiS) party, whose core support comes from devout Catholics and the Church, is not expected to be involved.
A PiS spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment, nor was a spokesman for Poland's Church.
According to the Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro "the prosecutor's office treats all people equally, does not divide them by faith and has no special criteria for Catholic Church".
Last week a Polish court upheld a landmark ruling granting a one million zlotys ($266,084.83) in compensation and an annuity to a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, accepting that the church ore responsibility for the crimes of its cleric.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: TVN 24