Protesters gathered in Warsaw on Wednesday (August 7) demanding the resignation of Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski after a series of anti-gay rhetoric.
LGBT+ rights demonstrators descended on the Apostolic Nunciature in the country's capital city of Warsaw hoping to grab the attention of Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church.
Poland's Catholic Church had doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party's dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop's remarks to incitement to genocide.
In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the archbishop of Kraków, Marek Jędraszewski, described Poland as under siege from a "rainbow plague" of gay rights campaigners he compared to Poland's former Communist rulers.
The Centre for the Monitoring of Racist and Xenophobic Behaviour filed a motion with the Prosecutor's Office in Kraków after Jedraszewski's comments. Director of the centre Konrad Dulkowski said the archbishop's words were ''promoting a totalitarian state.''
Robert Biedroń, an openly gay politician from the progressive Wiosna party, denounced Jędraszewski's sermon. Speaking before the protest Biedroń said he had written a letter to the Pope calling on him to take a ''clear stance'' on the issue.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters