Poland's episcopate will begin a systematic response to deal with the problem of child sex abuse in the church, a senior clergy member announced on Wednesday.
The Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, told a news conference in Warsaw that the investigations would look into how crimes committed by members of the clergy were carried out.
The announcement comes after Poland's ruling party announced plans to tighten sentences for child sex abuse, just days after the country's politics were upended by a documentary on paedophilia in the Catholic Church.
Millions of people have viewed the documentary "Just Don't Tell Anyone" after it was posted on YouTube. It shows Poles confronting priests they said abused them as children, and presents allegations that known pedophiles were shifted between parishes.
The documentary has led to a swift public outcry, with lawyers and journalists calling for the police to launch criminal investigations.
Marek Lisiński, head of the "Have no Fear" foundation, which helps victims of abuse within the church, called the film Poland's version of "Spotlight" in reference to a film about a newspaper investigation into Catholic Church sex abuse, adding that the size of the response shows the scale of the problem.
Poland is one of Europe's most devout countries, with 85 percent of the population identifying as Catholics and nearly a third attending mass every Sunday.
The Church has long held a powerful political role and is closely allied with the ruling Law and Justice Party. Poland has only just begun confronting the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church around the world in recent years.
In March, the Polish Catholic Church published a study saying that between 1990 and 2018 its officials had received reports of sexual abuse by clergy of 625 children since 1950, over half of them aged 15 or younger.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters TV
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24