October 19 marks forty years since priest Jerzy Popiełuszko, a staunch supporter of Poland’s Solidarity freedom movement, was brutally murdered at the age of 37.
On Saturday morning, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz placed flowers at the priest's grave.
In his post on platform X, Kosiniak-Kamysz recalled the motto that Father Popiełuszko adopted from St Paul’s Letter for the Romans as the central message of his teaching: “Conquer evil with good”. He wrote: “On the 40th anniversary of the martyr’s death of the Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, we remember the life and the legacy of his great advocate of freedom”.
The priest’s grave at the Popiełuszko shrine in Warsaw’s Żoliborz district was also visited on Saturday by the Speaker of the Senate Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska.
An afternoon mass at the Popiełuszko shrine is to be attended by President Andrzej Duda. It will be preceded by a National Papal March, from Warsaw’s Old Town to the Popiełuszko shrine, under the motto “Conquer evil with good”.
Father Popiełuszko was a beacon of hope following the communist regime’s crackdown on Poland’s Solidarity movement and the imposition of martial law in December 1981. In 2010, he was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church and declared a martyr.
On Friday, Polish MPs paid tribute to Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, describing him in a resolution as “one of the contemporary heroes of our freedom; a symbol of the defence of the freedom of conscience, human dignity and civic rights”.
A wide range of events in tribute to Father Popiełuszko is being held on Saturday across Poland.
(mk/mo)
Source: PAP