Jerzy Popiełuszko’s Masses for Poland
The murder of a priest, Jerzy Popiełuszko, in 1980s Poland exposed the cracks in the communist regime.
On 19 October 1984 Father Jerzy Popiełuszko was invited to celebrate mass and lead the rosary in a parish in the city of Bydgoszcz, northern Poland. Soon after 9pm the priest, with his driver and friend Waldemar Chrostowski, set off back to Warsaw. Half an hour into the three-hour journey their car was stopped by three members of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB) – the Security Service – near the village of Górsk. Both men were abducted. Chrostowski was made to sit in the front seat of the SB car and Popiełuszko was forced into the boot. Chrostowski managed to jump out of the moving vehicle, and alerted the police in the nearby town of Przysiek. Initial searches failed to locate Popiełuszko. His body was later found floating in the River Vistula.
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