- by Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B..-

Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko was born on September 14, 1947, in the village of Okopy in Eastern Poland. He was from a staunch Roman Catholic family and after secondary school, he decided to study for the priesthood, entering the seminary in Warsaw. Jerzy's training was interrupted by two years of military service, during which he was beaten on at least one occasion for living his Christian faith.
After ordination, the young priest held several appointments before his final appointment to the parish of St. Stanislaw Kostka in a working-class neighborhood of the Polish capital. Due to poor health, he resided at St. Stanislaw Church and worked part-time in the parish, which enabled him to work as well with medical personnel. Thousands flocked to hear his Sunday sermons. Fr. Jerzy was tireless in speaking out against abortion.
August 1980 saw the beginning of the Solidarity trade union in Poland. Striking shipyard workers from the Warsaw steel plant approached Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski to ask for a priest to say Mass for them. The Cardinal found Fr. Jerzy at St. Stanislaw Kostka Church. Solidarity represented for Fr. Jerzy a vision that he had first learnt from St Maximilian Kolbe: that of spiritual freedom amidst physical enslavement. Fr. Jerzy promoted this vision of the truth about the vocation of every man and woman among the workers who gathered around him.
On December 13, 1981, the communist authorities imposed martial law on Poland, arresting many Solidarity activists and commencing a programme of harassment and retaliation against others. Fr. Popieluszko became an important focus in a welfare programme to support families affected by martial law, winning new friends amongst foreign visitors bringing in relief supplies. He regularly attended the trials of Solidarity activists, sitting prominently in court with their families so that the prisoners could see that they were not forgotten. It was in the courtroom that he had the idea for a monthly Mass for the Country, to be celebrated for all the imprisoned and their families. Fr. Popieluszko insisted that change should be brought about peacefully; the sign of peace was one of the most poignant moments of each monthly Mass for the Country.
On October 19, 1984, Fr. Popieluszko was kidnapped by security agents on his way back to Warsaw after a visit to a parish in the neighboring town of Bydgoszcz. Fr. Jerzy’s driver was told to get out of his car and get into the police car where he was cuffed and gagged. Fr. Jerzy was then savagely beaten until he lost consciousness, and his body was tied up in such a way that he would strangle himself by moving. His weighted body was then thrown into a reservoir. The driver, who managed to escape, told what had happened to the press. On October 30, Popieluszko's bound and gagged body was found in the freezing waters of a reservoir near Wloclawek.
The priest’s funeral was a massive public demonstration drawing together more than half a million people in the working class section of Warsaw. Official delegations of Solidarity appeared from throughout the whole country for the first time since the imposition of martial law. Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko was buried in the front yard of his parish church of Saint Stanislaw Kostka. Since then this church has become a shrine of the Solidarity Movement. Fr. Jerzy’s brutal murder was widely believed to have hastened the collapse of communist rule in Poland.
Father Popieluszko's death serves as testimony to the struggle for freedom, basic rights, and human dignity. In one of the earliest addresses after his election to the See of Rome, Pope John Paul II said: "The truth we owe to man is, first and foremost, a truth about man. As witnesses of Jesus Christ we are heralds, spokesmen and servants of this truth... We cannot forget it or betray it". Fr. Jerzy provides a model for us, calling us to strive that what we say and do outwardly should always agree with our inward conscience. His life also reminds us of the price that we may be called upon to pay as "witnesses to the truth about man and woman".
It is hoped that Pope John Paul II will beatify Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko next spring, proclaiming him a martyr for the truth. May Fr. Jerzy intercede for each of us as we try our best to give witness to the truth and dignity of the human person.
On Sunday, May 14, 2000, the final set of three stained glass windows was blessed during the mass celebrated by Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., then pastor of the Newman Centre. The windows were made by Toronto artist Josef Aigner of Artistic Glass. In attendance at the mass were former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his wife Aline.

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