Prominent Bishop removed over sex abuse cover-up

Monday, October 19th, 2020

Pope Francis, Saturday, accepted the resignation of Edward Janiak, 68, bishop of the Polish diocese of Kalisz.

Janiak’s resignation follows accusations made in a documentary about his handling of two abuse cases.

The documentary “Playing Hide and Seek” was posted online in May this year. The film exposed two cases of pedophile priests that Janiak failed to take action against.

The film featured court testimony about Janiak’s role in helping transfer one priest from Wroclaw to another diocese; something which happened even after a criminal investigation had begun.

The priest was subsequently convicted and defrocked.

The film also documented an alleged sex abuse cover-up relating to another priest during Janiak’s time as Kalisz bishop, a position he held since 2012.

In June this year, Pope Francis ordered Janiak to leave Kalisz. He forbade the bishop from having any influence on how the diocese is run pending the investigation.

The film was the second focused on Polish clergy abuse to be made by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski.

Their first film last year, “Tell No One,” addressed clerical abuse in Poland. The film has been viewed almost 24 million times on YouTube.

The Polish bishops conference reported the news on its website on Saturday. It posted a statement from the Vatican ambassador to Poland simply saying that Janiak had resigned.

The statement noted the archbishop of Lodz, Grzegorz Rys would be the “apostolic administrator” of Kalisz until the position is permanently filled.

A spokesman for the Polish Bishops’ Conference said: “It is understandable that such information arouses numerous social reactions and evokes emotions among the faithful. Currently, we are waiting for a reliable explanation of the media reports on this event, which — once again — should never take place, especially among the people of the Church.”