The programme of the three-day event includes screenings of several documentaries, the 2009 feature film “Popiełuszko. Freedom is within us”, directed by Rafał Wieczyński, as well as an interview that Father Popiełuszko gave to foreign media in 1984, shortly before his death.
There is also a wide range of meetings and panel discussions with film makers, historians, and people who knew Father Popiełuszko about the lessons to be drawn from his teaching today.
The event inaugurates the commemorations of the 40th anniversary of Father Popiełuszko’s death. Their programme was unveiled at a press conference at the residence of Warsaw Archbishops on Thursday.
On October 19, the anniversary itself, a mass will be celebrated by Kazimierz Cardinal Nycz at the Popiełuszko sanctuary in Warsaw’s Żoliborz district.
It will be preceded by a National Papal March that is set to begin at noon in the city’s Castle Square. Its motto is “Conquer evil with good”, the words of St Paul which were central to Father Popiełuszko’s teaching.
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.
On 19 October 1984, he was abducted by three secret police officers on his way back to Warsaw from the northern town of Bydgoszcz and subsequently murdered. In 2010, he was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church and declared a martyr.
(mk/mp)