Polish bishop on trial over alleged delays in reporting claims of child abuse by priests

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish bishop went on trial Wednesday, accused of not informing authorities immediately about alleged sexual abuse of children by two priests in his diocese.

It is the first time a Polish bishop is on trial over sexual abuse allegedly committed by priests under his authority.

The Catholic Church has long been the highest moral authority in Poland, having played an inspirational role during occupation and foreign rule and supporting the anti-communist Solidarity movement in the 1980s.

But years of reckoning with clergy abuse and decades of cover-up by religious superiors have damaged the credibility of the hierarchy, which produced Poland’s most famous Catholic, St. John Paul II.

Superiors in the church hierarchy are accused of ignoring the crimes or, in some cases, protecting priests by moving them to new posts once the scandals were made public. A 2019 report by the Polish Episcopal Conference, the central organ of the church, said 382 sexual abuse complaints against priests were filed with the church between 1990 and 2018.

Under the Catholic Church’s internal law, bishops aren’t required to inform police of suspected abuse by their priests, and for decades they kept the cases in-house, preferring to protect the church’s reputation at the expense of victims.

Even in countries that have reckoned with abuse, it is highly unusual for a bishop to face criminal prosecution for failing to report abuse to law enforcement. In France, amid revelations of the church’s devastating legacy of abuse, a court in 2019 convicted Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of covering up the sex crimes of an abusive priest, but the conviction was overturned on appeal two years later.

According to the Polish Press Agency, prosecutors argued in court on Wednesday that the bishop, Andrzej Jeż, should have informed authorities immediately upon receiving credible information about alleged child abuse committed by priests in his diocese.

In the case of the two priests under Jeż’s supervision, the Catholic Church did conduct internal investigations and reported the priests to authorities. But prosecutors argued that the law requires reporting without delay.

Jeż faces up to three years in prison if convicted. He claims innocence, saying he informed authorities as soon as the church clarified the facts and once he became aware of the legal obligation to do so.

He has been serving as a bishop in the diocese of Tarnow, in southern Poland, since 2012.

“I express my regret and apologies to all those who were harmed and to other people who suffered because of this, often including families,” Jeż said Wednesday.