An official of Poland’s Catholic Church apologized to victims of sex abuse by priests on Friday. Prosecutors earlier said they have opened an investigation into allegations that two Polish priests, including a Vatican envoy, sexually abused boys in the Dominican Republic. Bishop Wojciech Polak, secretary of the Episcopate, told a news conference that the Church Read more
The next World Youth Day, in 2016, will be in the Polish city of Krakow — where the WYD founder, Pope John Paul II, was archbishop before he was elected to the papacy. After the announcement at WYD in Rio de Janeiro, thousands of Poles who were scattered across Copacabana Beach cheered loudly. The late Read more
Thirteen years ago, researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum began the grim task of documenting all the ghettos, slave labor sites, concentration camps and killing factories that the Nazis set up throughout Europe. What they have found so far has shocked even scholars steeped in the history of the Holocaust. The researchers have cataloged some Read more
Family-oriented countries like Hungary, Poland and the Philippines are being targeted by population control groups because of their beliefs and pro-life culture, says Human Life International. HLI president Father Shenan Boquet said the groups that take issue with pro-family countries have a “perception that you must lessen the number of children and introduce contraception, sterilisation Read more
A Polish firm that makes coffins has angered the Catholic church by trying to drum up business with a calendar depicting topless models posing next to its caskets. One image from the 2013 edition of the calendar has a blonde model, wearing only a skimpy thong and with a snake draped around her neck, reclining Read more
A European Court of Human Rights decision ordering Poland to pay compensation for not helping a girl obtain an abortion four years ago has upset many in the predominantly Catholic country. The court, which has jurisdiction over 47 European countries, said Poland had violated the European Convention on Human Rights because the girl — who Read more
At the sound of a bell from the altar, relayed over loud-speakers, about 50,000 people at an open-air mass last month in the Polish capital dropped down to kneel in the street. It was a powerful symbol of Poland’s deeply felt Roman Catholicism, a reminder of the scenes in the 1980s when, inspired by Polish Read more
With exorcism booming in Poland, Roman Catholic priests here have joined forces with a publisher to launch what they claim is the world’s first monthly magazine focused exclusively on chasing out the devil. “The rise in the number or exorcists from four to more than 120 over the course of 15 years in Poland is Read more
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church is visiting Poland to meet the nation’s Catholic bishops and sign an unprecedented joint declaration of reconciliation. Patriarch Kirill I will sign the declaration with Archbishop Józef Michalik of Przemysl, president of the Catholic bishops’ conference, at Warsaw’s Royal Castle on August 17. “The purpose of this document Read more
Google’s push for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships in countries like Poland has drawn the ire of critics, who suggest the company should address basic human rights violations elsewhere. “I am afraid that Google can’t distinguish between discrimination, tolerance and promotion,” Fr. Maciej Zieba, the director of Krakow’s Tertio Millennio Institute, told Catholic News Read more