Mons. Adrian Galbas, Archbishop of Warsaw (Poland), asked the Vatican to expulsion from a priest accused of murdering a homeless man. The prelate said he was “devastated” by the news of the homicide.
“Due to the seriousness of the crime and the great social scandal, the Metropolitan of Warsaw, Mons. Adrian Galbas, immediately requests the Holy See that imposes the highest penalty provided in canon law for a cleric: the resignation of the priesthood,” says a Warsaw Archbishoppublished on Saturday, July 26.
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The text indicates that the order is based on the provisions of Canon 1397 of the Code of Canon Law, which is provided that if a cleric commits homicide or kidnapping “it must be expelled from the clerical state.”
According Katholisch.deNews of the German Episcopal Conference, the accused priest has already been arrested by the Polish Police and has confessed the crime.
After specifying that this is “the highest possible sanction in relation to the clerical condition”, the Warsaw arch
The archbishopric also requires that since Friday, July 25, P.Miroslaw M., the priest accused of murder and identified in this way according to Polish privacy laws, has already been replaced in his office as a pastor of Przypki.
The Prosecutor’s Office explains the facts
According Associated Pressthe Prosecutor’s Office accused the priest of “murder with special cruelty”, after the death of a homeless man who was 68 years old. The priest faces a penalty between 15 years in prison and life imprisonment.
The priest and the victim, Anatol Cz., Were in a car on Thursday night when they argued, according to Aneta Góźdź, spokesman for the Radom District Prosecutor’s Office. The fight arose from an agreement in which the priest had pledged to attend the man.
In the midst of the discussion, the priest would have hit the victim in the head with an ax and then he would have set fire. “The autopsy showed that the victim suffered burns in 80% of the body and head wounds caused by a heavy and sharp object,” Góźdź explained.
“The blood of our murdered brother claims to God”
“Today I have no words of comfort for you, much less an explanation or justification. I am devastated by the news that one of my priests brutally murdered a poor and homeless man. I have no answer to any questions that begins with ‘Why?'”, Said the Warsaw Archbishop in a declaration On July 25.
“I ask all the priests of the Archdiocese of Warsaw to start their personal penance and expansion prayer today. Next Sunday, let’s do it together, after each Holy Mass throughout the Archdiocese,” added the archbishop.
“The blood of our murdered brother claims to God. Let us apologize to God and ask others for forgiveness. I ask.”
After requesting prayers from the victim and their loved ones; And to reiterate that the archdiocese will collaborate with the authorities to clarify what happened, the Polish prelate said that being the local archbishop, he feels “morally responsible for everything that happens in this church, both good and bad. Including this terrible crime. I apologize.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.