Polish bishops to discuss child sex abuse as documentary spurs outrage
Film on sexual abuse by priests shocks Poles and opposition party says state should intervene
Warsaw— Polish bishops will meet on May 22 to discuss steps to tackle paedophilia in Poland’s Catholic Church after a documentary that showed victims confronting priests who had sexually abused them shocked the devout nation. The film Just Don’t Tell Anyone, which has been watched by 14.8-million people since YouTube released it on Saturday, also alleges that the Polish church moved known paedophile priests from parish to parish, as happened in other countries. Lawyers and journalists have called for the police to launch criminal investigations and the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has close links to the church, announced plans on Tuesday to tighten sentences for child sex abuse. “The head of the Episcopate, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, called yesterday an extraordinary meeting of top bishops — the meeting of the permanent council — to set out further actions aimed at protecting minors,” an Episcopate spokesperson said. “This is connected with the paedophilia issue,...
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