Paulina Guzik

Five years after the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church made national headlines in Poland, victims of abuse met with Polish bishops at the fringes of the plenary meeting of the bishops' conference. 

Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that when standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, he "was just trying to appeal" to church hierarchy, "to look deep inside and to change what needs to be changed and to realize the fundamental values of certain things that you cannot take for granted. And that was important for me."

The Polish bishops' conference expressed sympathy and prayers and appeals for funds after weekend flooding wreaked havoc across Central and Eastern Europe.

Taking over one of the most troubled dioceses in the country, Bishop Artur Wazny of Sosnowiec didn't waste time ahead of his June 22 installation.

Removing Fr. Marko Rupnik's art from public space "is not a Christian response," Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, said at the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta.

In a first, 46 victims signed a letter about allegations of negligence Polish Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda — the first such large joint initiative of survivors of abuse in Poland that has been in a time of crisis since 2019.

The announcement that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Archbishop Andrzej Dziega of Szczecin-Kamien with no explanation in a Feb. 24 statement from the apostolic nunciature caused a bittersweet reaction in Poland.

It took 10 months for the Vatican to reopen Fr. Marko Rupnik's case -- from the first reports on the case of Slovenian mosaic artist in December 2022 and the first alleged victims' testimonies at that time, to dismissal of the priest from the Jesuit order in July, to public outrage after his incardination into a Slovenian diocese.