Parishioners protest church closure

Parishioners from a village near Warsaw launched a protest in the capital on Thursday following the closure of their local church over a row about pro-IVF priest who enourages Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Parishioners from Jasienica protest in Warsaw against the closure of their church. One of the placards reads "Return our church to us and Father Lemanski."Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Jakubowski

Protesters held placards outside the headquarters of the Curia for the Warsaw-Praga diocese calling for the return of Father Wojciech Lemanski, who has been banned from saying mass at the Jasienica church.

Parishioners hope to pass on a letter to head of the diocese Archbishop Henryk Hoser, who authorised the closure of the church on Tuesday.

The letter claims that “during the six years he served as rector in Jasienica, Father Wojciech Lemanski built a community that should be a model for all Poland.

“The church was always full, united around God and the truth. Father Lemanski was not afraid to broach problems that are important for all people, he talked about matters which the Catholic Church appeared not to see,” the letter says.

Father Wojciech Lemanski had been dismissed as rector of the Jasienica parish in July 2013 after calling on the Church hierarchy to soften its rhetoric against IVF treatment.

Archbisop Hoser had claimed Lemanski showed “a lack of respect and obedience to the bishops, as well as to the teaching of diocesan bishops in Poland on bioethics issues.”

Technically, Lemanski was still entitled to say mass once a week at 8 am on Sundays in Jasienica, but last week, Archbishop Hoser also withdrew this right, resulting in a noisy scene on Palm Sunday, followed by the closure of the church.

Lemanski, a longstanding promoter of dialogue between Poles and Jews, has claimed that his engagement in Jewish issues was at the root of the problem, but the Curia denied this. (nh)

Source: PAP