The problem of pedophilia is well illustrated by the story of Father Pawel Kania, one of the subjects of the film. He was detained by church authorities in 2005 for attempting to seduce children and possessing child pornography. But instead of punishing him or turning him over to the authorities, the church relocated him to a parish in the city of Bydgoszcz — where he was, amazingly, tasked with working with children.
In 2010, a court found Father Pawel guilty of possessing child pornography. Two years later, the priest was found in a hotel room with a boy and arrested. In 2015, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for rape and child molestation. Earlier this year, the church finally expelled him from the priesthood. [...]
Law and Justice is also implicated in the abuse cover-ups. One of the party’s best-known figures, Stanislaw Piotrowicz, made his name in 2001, when as a prosecutor in the town of Krosno he dismissed a case against a priest accused of raping six girls. Mr. Piotrowicz argued, “The priest confirmed that he took children into his lap, children would run up to him during catechism, they would hug him, he, too, would hug them, caress them, he sometimes kissed them. The children were happy, they were content. There was no sexual subtext.” After the case was transferred to a different jurisdiction, the priest was convicted. [...]
The Law and Justice and Church faithful have every right to be disoriented. In today’s highly polarized Poland, elections are won thanks to large-scale voter mobilization. And that’s what is happening now — people are angry at both institutions. That may prove the deciding factor in whether or not the party retains power. The first poll since the documentary appeared shows that the opposition European Coalition ranks 10 percent above Law and Justice, 43.6 percent to 33 percent, a 6 percentage-point drop in a week for the ruling party.
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