The Catholic Church’s crash in Poland
The deputy director of a branch of Catholic charity Caritas in Poland has quit the church, saying that the institution is a “mafia” that has been “sheltering criminals”, including those guilty of child sex abuse.
Sebastian Wiśniewski has worked for Caritas in Białystok, one of Poland’s largest cities, since 2007 and became its deputy director in 2019.
In interviews with media outlets this week, Wiśniewski revealed that, two months ago, he submitted an act of apostasy – the formal process of leaving the Catholic church.
The decision was “the result of years of work and observations in Caritas and almost 50 years as a Catholic”, he told broadcaster TVN. “Of particular importance was escaping from heinous crimes – that is, paedophilia – [and] the pretence that it does not exist in the church”.
“I cannot be a member of an organisation that, to some extent, shelters criminals,” declared Wiśniewski. In a separate interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, he went even further, describing the church as a “mafia corporation that abuses the sign of the cross”.
Wiśniewski said that his accusations were based on his own personal experience within Caritas, where he has witnessed corruption and greed. He claimed that the charity took “joy from natural disasters and other events that improve the Caritas budget through financial proceeds from fundraising”.
He said that he also observed how the “clergy [live] comfortable lives at the expense of naive believers”, with “priests accumulating wealth contrary to what the Bible, especially the New Testament, teaches”.
Wiśniewski added, however, that he had not personally turned away from God, and revealed that he is now a member of a Baptist church. “There are many Christian denominations that show an authentic image of God, consistent with the Holy Scripture, and lead the faithful to salvation,” he said.
Recent data from the church itself has shown a significant decline in the proportion of Catholics attending church, while the latest census also found a big drop in the proportion of Poles identifying as Catholics. The church has also confirmed that there has been a growing number of people submitting acts of apostasy.
That trend has been particularly pronounced among young people, only 25% of whom say they now practice religion regularly, down from 70% in the early 1990s.
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Чем дальше нация от Книги, те ближе она к исчезновению.