page_title: Parish transfers of abusive Catholic priests
section_title: Poland
hierarchical_section_title: Parish transfers of abusive Catholic priests / By country / Poland
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Ks. Abp Marian Przykucki
context_page_description: The parish transfers of abusive Catholic priests, also known as priest shuffling, is a pastoral practice that has greatly contributed to the aggravation of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases. Some bishops have been heavily criticized for moving offending priests from parish to parish, where they still had personal contact with children, rather than seeking to have them permanently returned to the lay state by laicization. The Church was widely criticized when it was discovered that some bishops knew about some of the alleged crimes committed, but reassigned the accused instead of seeking to have them permanently removed from the priesthood.
context_section_description: In May 2019, the documentary Tell No One claimed amongst other things 'that the Polish Church moved known paedophile priests from parish to parish, as happened in other countries.' One string of transfers is documented extensively by victims of father Andrzej Srebrzyński, led by Marek Mielewczyk from Kartuzy, who claims to have been sexually abused and raped multiple times by Srebrzyński from the age of 13 until he attempted suicide and was hospitalised in 1987. Treating doctor Irena Drewla wrote a letter to bishop Marian Przykucki of Chełmno, informing him of Srebrzyński's abuse and rape of Mielewczyk. Bishop Przykucki responded on 20 January 1988, writing: 'I am familiar with the case. After the retreat programme, the priest was moved to another place, under the penalty that should this crime repeat, he'll be deprived of the possibility of performing his priestly vocation.' Nothing else was done with Mielewczyk's complaints, who recounts: 'Years later, we found out that he was moved to Wejherowo; then to Czerna, a small town close to Czersk; then to Papowo Biskupie; then, much further, to Mszano, close to Brodnica; he was a parish priest there until 2013. Over ten victims of Srebrzyński came to me personally.' Although Pope Francis finally defrocked Srebrzyński in 2016 (28 years after the Mielewczyk case was reported), he was seen participating during the June 2017 Lady of Fátima procession in Mogilno in full liturgical garment.
caption: Marian Przykucki, bishop of Chełmno (1981–1992)
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-W150", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2012:07:24 20:54:02", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "366", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7114", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5619", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "33/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:06:19 11:40:08", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:06:19 11:40:08", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "55/16", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1536", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2048", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6978", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "8c9166a8bdb0e397c75066149c9c9124"}