Catholic Saints • Poland • Solidarity • October to November 1984
Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko and Lech Wałęsa: The Priest and the Solidarity Leader
A young Warsaw priest preached to striking workers. A shipyard electrician led the movement they were part of. When the priest was murdered by the secret police, the electrician went to Warsaw and spoke at his funeral.
Popiełuszko and Wałęsa at a Glance
- The Blessed
- Jerzy Popiełuszko (1947 to 1984), priest of Saint Stanislaus Kostka parish in Warsaw, beatified June 6, 2010
- The Leader
- Lech Wałęsa, chairman of Solidarity, Nobel Peace Prize 1983, later President of Poland
- The Link
- Popiełuszko accompanied Solidarity from August 1980, according to Wałęsa's own funeral speech
- The Crime
- Popiełuszko was abducted on October 19, 1984 by officers of the security service and killed
- The Funeral
- November 3, 1984, at Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church in Żoliborz, Warsaw
- Attendance
- Estimates range from 600,000 to one million; the Security Service put it at 100,000
- His Feast Day
- October 19
The Priest of Żoliborz
Jerzy Popiełuszko was born Alfons Popiełuszko in 1947 in the village of Okopy in eastern Poland and was ordained a priest in 1972. He served in Warsaw, and in time became associated with the parish of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in the Żoliborz district.
After Solidarity was suppressed and martial law was imposed in December 1981, the parish began holding monthly Masses for the Homeland, which grew into gatherings of tens of thousands. The sermons he preached there, calm and unadorned, said that evil must be overcome with good. He was watched, harassed, and threatened by the security service.
Part II
The Leader
Lech Wałęsa was an electrician at the Gdańsk shipyard who became the chairman of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc, founded in August 1980. He was interned under martial law, released in 1982, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. He later served as President of Poland.
The two men moved in the same world. The link the sources most clearly support comes from Wałęsa himself. In the speech he gave at the funeral, he said that Father Jerzy had accompanied Solidarity from August 1980 to his death, in the Warsaw steelworks, in Gdańsk, in Bytom, and at Jasna Góra.
Part III
October 19, 1984
On the evening of October 19, 1984, Popiełuszko and his driver were stopped near Toruń by men posing as traffic police. The driver escaped. The priest was beaten and killed by three security service officers, Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala, and Waldemar Chmielewski, and his body was put in the Vistula near Włocławek.
His body was found in the reservoir about ten days into the search. The case became a public scandal, and Wałęsa urged that the funeral be peaceful, so that crowds would not riot or turn on the officers.
Part IV
The Funeral
The funeral was held on Saturday, November 3, 1984, at Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church. Estimates of the crowd run from 600,000 to a million. The Security Service gave a figure of 100,000, and the militia first reported between 10,000 and 14,000.
Cardinal Józef Glemp, the Primate of Poland, preached and said he forgave the killers. Lech Wałęsa spoke as chairman of Solidarity. According to the account I could reach, he said farewell to the priest as a fellow Solidarity figure and pledged that Solidarity would not yield to violence, and would answer falsehood with truth and evil with good. As the crowd dispersed, mourners were reported chanting, "Drop your batons, we will forgive."
Part V
After the Funeral
The three officers and Adam Pietruszka, a more senior officer convicted of aiding and abetting, were tried and sentenced to between 14 and 25 years. They were released after an amnesty. Poland's government changed in 1989, and the former Solidarity leader became President in 1990.
Pope Benedict XVI's representative beatified Jerzy Popiełuszko in Warsaw on June 6, 2010, as a martyr. For his full life story, see our longer article on him.
Part VI
What the Sources Do and Do Not Say
A museum photograph reportedly shows Wałęsa meeting Popiełuszko and another priest before October 19, 1984. I could not view that item, so this article does not rely on it.
What can be said safely is narrower: Wałęsa said in his own funeral speech that the priest had accompanied Solidarity from 1980, he urged a peaceful funeral, and he spoke at it. How often the two men met in person is not established in the sources I reached.
Part VII
Timeline
- 1947Jerzy Popiełuszko is born in Okopy.
- August 1980Solidarity is founded in Gdańsk, led by Lech Wałęsa.
- December 1981Martial law is imposed in Poland.
- October 1983Wałęsa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- October 19, 1984Popiełuszko is abducted and killed by security service officers.
- November 3, 1984His funeral in Warsaw; Wałęsa speaks.
- 1990Wałęsa becomes President of Poland.
- June 6, 2010Popiełuszko is beatified in Warsaw.
Answering Evil With Good
The priest preached it, the Cardinal repeated it, and the union leader promised it at the grave. If you want Blessed Jerzy near you in prayer, the prayer card is a small place to begin.
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