Polish church says about 382 minors abused by clergy
In 2018, bishops in the devout Catholic country asked victims for forgiveness and began collecting data to assess the scale of sexual abuse
Warsaw — As many as 382 children were sexually abused by clergy in Poland from 1990 to2018, according to findings presented on Thursday by the Polish Catholic Church in one of the most devout countries in Europe. The report follows investigations into widespread abuse of minors by clergy in other countries — notably in Chile, the US, Australia and Ireland — that have shaken the Roman Catholic Church to its foundations. “This is an especially painful, tragic issue as it is connected with consecrated people, who devoted themselves to serving the church, other human beings. They have social trust and this social trust was so tragically violated,” Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski said at a news conference. Polish bishops in 2018 asked victims of past clerical abuse for forgiveness and began collecting data to “identify the causes of these deeds and assess their scale”. The report said as many as 198 of the victims were below the age of 15. In February, the Polish charity Have No Fear, whic...
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